The Honeymoon's Over,Part Two
by LanieSullivan
Summary: The continuing tale of Lee and Amanda adjusting to their new family life as the agency adjusts to them being a couple. Warning: You shouldn't read if you haven't already read all 50 chapters of "The Honeymoon's Over" or this story will make absolutely no sense to you.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Ok, so here's is the beginning of the continuation of "The Honeymoon's Over," which I decided to cut off after it got to 50 chapters and continue in a second installment just due to the length of it. If you haven't read it, I recommend reading it first or this will make no sense to you. This picks up after they've come home from the wedding reception and will carry on from there and how Lee and Amanda adjust to their new life together in starting their second month of marriage, making plans for their new baby, house shopping, etc. I hope you all enjoy. Thanks to those who patiently followed, read and reviewed all 50 chapters of the first installment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Colonel Robert Clayton shifted nervously in the den of the house on Maplewood Drive as he watched Dotty working in the kitchen. "You know, I don't want to put you out. I could stay in a hotel tonight. I shouldn't be intruding on your family life here."

"Nonsense," Dotty said. "This is you nephew's home just as much as it is my daughter's. Besides, Amanda would never hear of it. I don't know if you know this but that daughter of mine is very determined when she sets her mind on something and she made it very clear that since you can't move into your barracks tomorrow that you stay with family tonight. I have to say that I'm inclined to agree with her. I know that Lee has been the only family you've had for a long time, but you're a part of _this_ family now and in this family, we look after each other."

"I've always believed family should look after each other. I'd never have taken Lee in when he was a child if I didn't."

"Good," Amanda said as she descended the stairs and stepped into the room her arms laden with blankets and pillows. "It's the least we can do since you were brought here unexpectedly to help us celebrate our marriage." She began to make up the couch for the Colonel to sleep on.

"And the new addition to the family," He said with a pointed glance at Amanda.

"Well, that wasn't part of the party planning," Dotty said. "It was just intended to be a wedding reception until Lee's tantrum; Although, I'm very glad that it's all out in the open. I never thought you should be hiding your pregnancy. It's something you should celebrate."

"We weren't exactly hiding it, Mother," Amanda replied. "We just weren't telling everyone about it yet until we knew that everything was ok. I told you that already. I also told you that the rumors at the agency are already bad enough without adding more on top of it."

"Well, the rumor mill's going to have plenty to talk about after tonight," Lee said as he entered the room.

"And since we're on the forced "Administrative leave' for the next week, that's going to give them a whole week to talk about it too."

"Yeah, thanks to me and my big mouth," Lee grumbled.

"It's ok, Sweetheart," Amanda said soothingly as she turned to face her husband. "We knew it wouldn't stay hidden forever." She gave him a quick kiss then turned back to her task.

Lee stepped into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator pulling out the milk and a glass from the cupboard. He glanced at Dotty and asked, "What is this you're doing here?"

"This is the top layer of your wedding cake," Dotty said. "It's traditional to freeze it until your first wedding anniversary so I'm wrapping it up for you to keep it from getting freezer-burned."

"Ok," Lee said dubiously as he poured the milk, capped the jug and put it away, and then reached for the prescription bottle that sat on the top of the fridge.

"It's best to humor her, Sweetheart," Amanda said.

"Well, if some of the gossips have their way, we won't make it to our first anniversary. Did you hear Jeffries tonight?"

"No, but I did hear Beaman gloating like crazy over winning the baby pool," Amanda said.

"What was that all about anyway?" The Colonel asked.

"Oh, well, everyone at the agency was so shocked when we came back from our trip and announced that we'd gotten married that they started placing bets on how long we'd last," Amanda explained.

"Then Efraim started this pool on how long it was going to be before we announced that we were expecting," Lee chimed in a bitter tone in his voice. "Some of our co-workers are having a hard time believing that I married Amanda simply because I fell in love with her and that there had to be some hidden reason behind it."

"Oh," Robert said realization dawning. "No wonder you were so pissed at me when I jumped to the same conclusion."

"I don't know why I expected anything different," Lee said. "I mean, it's not like anybody's wrong about the bad reputation I built for myself."

"There you go, Colonel, you're all set," Amanda said.

"Now, Amanda, I told you to call me Bob," Robert Clayton said.

"Of course...Bob," Amanda replied with a warm smile as she stepped into the kitchen.

"Here you go," Lee said as he handed her the glass of milk and the pills he'd extracted from the prescription bottle. "Don't forget to take your vitamins. We gotta' keep that baby healthy." He slipped his arms around her and lightly caressed her abdomen.

"Thank you," she said as she took the pills chasing them with the milk. "So, what exactly did Jeffries have to say?"

"Well, since Efraim won his bet tonight, now he's increased the stakes on his. And while you were being swept around the dance floor by Harry, then Paul, and whoever else you danced with tonight, I heard him and Fielder talking about how it won't be long before I'll be bored with you and making the rounds in the steno pool again," Lee said in irritation.

"Well, I'll just have to make sure you never get bored with me," she said with a devilish grin.

"I told them that I don't believe there's a chance in hell of that ever happening, and then Fielder made a crack about you and how the quiet ones are always the hot tamales in the bedroom."

"He didn't," Amanda said in mock horror with a chuckle as she sipped at her milk. "So, what did you say then?"

"I told him that our private life was none of his damn business," Lee said.

"No, you didn't," She said with a knowing smile. "You made some smart-alecky comment and you know I'll hear about it so you might as well tell what it was."

Colonel Clayton chuckled at seeing his nephew squirm and had to applaud Amanda's ability to see through his bull. "Ok, what I told him before telling him to mind his own business is that he didn't know what a hot tamale was and neither did I before I married you," Lee answered as he brushed her hair back from her face a kissed her softly.

She kissed him back then asked, "Are the boys asleep?"

"Yes, finally, after a lot of protesting and a lot of chattering, they finally dropped off," Lee said. "I had to remind them several times that they needed to get some sleep since we've got a busy day tomorrow, but they're both out like a light now."

"Good," Amanda said with a nod as she drained the last of her milk and took her glass to the sink to rinse it out. "Then I say it's time to turn in for the night ourselves," she said with a sultry smile

"I couldn't agree more," Lee said returning her smile as he reached for his wife's hand.

"Good-night, Mother, Good-night, Co..." Amanda began but then corrected herself, "...Bob," as she and Lee ascended the stairs toward their bedroom hand in hand.

After they'd left, Dotty said, "I'll be out of your way in just a minute so you can go to sleep."

"Oh, no hurry, Mrs. West," Robert replied. "I'm not sure I could go straight to sleep after tonight anyway. It's a lot to take in."

"I know what you mean," Dotty replied.

"Well, you've had time to adjust to this. I only learned about this tonight. I thought I was arriving to an actual wedding reception following a wedding. Imagine how surprised I was when I got there to find out from one of their friends they were married a month ago and that they got married in secret." He sighed and asked, "You wouldn't have anything stronger to drink than milk in there, would you?", as he stepped into the kitchen.

"There's a bottle of scotch on top of the fridge and ice in the freezer, glasses in the cupboard to the left of the refrigerator. Feel free to help yourself."

"Thank you," He said as he poured himself a nightcap. He was silent for a moment as he stared down at the amber liquid in the glass, then took a healthy swig of it, before asking, "So, what's your opinion on all of this? My nephew and your daughter?"

"You know, before I answer that question, I could use one of those myself," Dotty said with a backward nod at his glass. "Do you mind? I've got my hands full at the moment."

"Not at all," He replied as he poured a second glass for Dotty while she continued to wrap the top tier of the wedding cake in layer after layer of plastic wrap.

"That's a lot of plastic wrap," He commented watching what she was doing as he set her drink on the counter beside her and leaned against the counter.

"Just trying to protect it, since it's going to be in the freezer for the next eleven months," Dotty said. She sighed as she paused in her task, took a sip of her drink than said, "It's going to take a whole lot more than Saran wrap to protect my daughter, though."

"So, it's not just me then," Robert said thoughtfully. "You're worried about them too...about this sudden marriage. I mean, I know they've been together two years, but to just hear about their marriage without ever even hearing they were engaged..."

Dotty took a deep breath, unsure if she should tell him the truth or not. She'd heard Lee and Amanda's conversation about how they'd initially lied to the man, telling him they were a couple when they weren't. She turned from him to put the cake away then turned back to take another sip of her drink, deciding she'd better not take the chance since his relationship with Lee already seemed fragile. "Not about their marriage, no," she answered honestly. "Why don't we sit?" She said indicating the table in the corner as she walked that way and took a seat with a weary sigh, Colonel Clayton following her lead and sitting across from her. "I have no doubt that if my daughter is willing to say "I do" for a second time after the hurt she suffered in her first marriage, that she's going to do everything she can to make it work. She was so terrified of making another commitment like that after the way Joe King treated her that I never thought she'd ever allow herself to find happiness again. With Lee, she finally let her guard down enough to let him in, to open herself up to love again. I've seen them together and I know that Lee loves her with all his heart. I see it in the way he looks at her, like he can't live without her."

"So, you've not worried that their marriage won't last?"

"No, I _am_ worried that their marriage won't last, but not for the reason that you are. I'm not a bit worried that their marriage will end due to divorce. I'm worried that it will end due to death. What they do is so dangerous and every day when I see them off to work, I wonder if this is the day that I'll get a call to tell me that one or both of them won't be coming home. That's why I worked so hard to put this celebration together for them. I wanted them to have some semblance of something normal that a newlywed couple should have."

"Have you talked to them about it?"He inquired.

Dotty nodded. "I have. I've talked to them until I'm blue in the face and it does no good. Amanda just keeps trying to tell me that it's not as big a deal as I'm making it out to be, but I can't help the way I feel. My only daughter was shot and nearly died and now she's just killed someone and they both act like it's just another day on the job. You should see Lee's report on Amanda's shooting. It's so business-like, so cold, so impersonal, just details of facts and events. It doesn't begin to convey the pain or horror that he and I went through in watching Amanda fight for every breath. While I was watching her struggling to recover, I also watched him struggling, saw the worry and the pain on his face at seeing her suffering. That's when it really struck me just how deeply in love with her he is, but you can't tell any of that by the report he filed on it. It just sounds like one agent investigating the shooting of another agent, case closed."

"Well, I imagine that he can't put any of his personal feelings in an official report," Robert replied.

"That's exactly what he said when I asked him about it," Dotty replied.

"Listen, Mrs. West..." He began.

"Dotty," she said interrupting him. "If I'm gonna' pour my heart out here, we might as well be on a first name basis."

"Then, you should call me Bob," He replied. He sighed and said, "Dotty, what I was going to say is that you shouldn't worry about them on the job. From what I understand from my friend, Barney, the shooting in California had nothing to do with their jobs."

"That's what I keep hearing," Dotty said doubtfully. "I met your friend, Barney, when I was out there, after I knew the whole truth, he said the same thing and so did his friend, Gus. He even apologized to me for getting Amanda involved."

"It's true, but not only that. You should know that I've seen them in the field together first-hand and they are quite the team. I've been a military man my whole adult life and I don't think I've ever seen a team that worked together nearly as well as they do."

"How did you happen to see them in the field together?"

The Colonel launched into the story of his near court-martial and how Lee and Amanda had worked together to unravel the mystery surrounding it and uncovered the frame job against him. "They cleared my name and brought the real culprits to justice. Don't ever tell Lee I said this, but I was never as proud of him as I was in that moment."

"Why wouldn't you want him to know that? If you're proud of your child, you should always let them know that. I mean, I know Lee's not actually your son, but he might as well be. You're the closest thing he's got to a father. I bet he would love to know how you really feel about him. The way he talks about you, it seems that he feels he's been nothing but a disappointment to you."

"Honestly, I don't think he'd believe me if I did tell him. We've butted heads so often over the years, I get the feeling that he'd just take it as sarcasm and we'd be fighting again."

"Don't let him. You have to find a way to let him know that you're sincere. I think he would appreciate it."

"Maybe you should take a little of your own advice."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when the party tonight was starting to wind down, I couldn't help overhearing a part of your conversation with their boss tonight, that Dr. Smyth, when he was talking about the case they just wrapped up and how they saved the life of a general. I saw the look of pride in your eyes when he was praising your daughter's bravery. Even though her job scares you, you should still let her know that you're proud of her accomplishments. She really is a damn fine agent. I've seen it myself. She's insightful, resourceful and has more courage than any soldier I've ever seen. If it weren't for her, I'd have been court-martialed and we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Dotty smiled a little and said, "Maybe you're right. I just...with all this new stuff that I'm learning about Amanda...I feel...well, I feel like I just don't know her at all anymore. She's had this whole life separate from me and the boys that I haven't been included in."

"Well, I think the same goes for me and Lee. He's pretty much kept me out of his personal life since he's been an adult, mostly I think because I've never approved of the kind of girls he dated. He always went for the frivolous party girls that were out for a good time, nowhere near worthy of him. I even told him when I first met Amanda that his taste was improving and I believe I was right then. She's done something to him that's changed him profoundly. I saw something in him tonight that I never thought I'd ever see, a sense of purpose, as if he finally has something worth living for. For years, with the way that he was, I felt like he was just hiding from life."

"From what I heard from Billy and Francine, I think he was," Dotty concurred. "I think Amanda was too. She was so broken by her divorce, by feeling that she wasn't enough to keep her husband home, that she cut herself off from anyone that might make her take a real risk with her heart. She was dating this man for a while, wonderful man who loved her and wanted to marry her, he embraced Phillip and Jamie whole-heartedly, but when it came right down to it, she was just trying to play it safe with him, knowing he'd never be the type to leave. Eventually, though she admitted that she couldn't love him and cut him loose. I only recently learned that she'd already met Lee by that time. I think meeting him is what made her realize that she could never be happy with Dean and I now that that's what made her take a real risk with her heart again."

"Then it's good that they found each other," Robert said as he contemplated the events of the night. "Maybe the two of them have just what the other was looking for."

"You're probably right," Dotty said. "I just wish I knew how to get over this fear of the hazardous nature of their job."

"Who says you have to get over it?" he replied. "There's nothing wrong with worrying about your child. You just can't let it overwhelm you. You gave me some advice. Now, let me give you some. Just be happy for Amanda, for her marriage, for your new grandchild, be proud of her in the job she does because she really does do it well, as does my nephew. Of course, you're going to worry about her. You wouldn't be a good mother if you didn't, but think about it this way. The job that they do helps to make the world a safer place for your grandchildren to grow up in."

"Maybe," she said.

"There's no maybe about it. Let me tell you something. Fourteen years ago when Lee told me he'd been recruited by Harry Thornton, he and I had the worst fight of our life. I told him in no uncertain terms that there was no way in hell I was going to let him take that job. Of course, he fought me on it. He was not quite twenty-three and told me, very loudly, I might add, that he as an adult and it was none of my business what he did with his life. That resulted in a knock-down drag-out screaming match and he took the job anyway and we didn't speak for another two years after that."

"Wow," Dotty said. "So, you didn't approve of his career choice either?"

"No. but here's the thing I never told Lee. The reason that I didn't want him to take the job was because I was terrified that he'd end up the same way as his parents. He damn near did just before I took him in. When Matt and Jennie died, he went to live with my mother and he'd been there not quite two years when there was an attack on my mother trying to get to him as revenge on Matt and Jennie, I think. I never did know for sure. They never caught who did it. I don't think he ever knew about it, he was so young. That's when we decided it would be better for me to take him to protect him. We believed that no one would dare try to come after him on an Air Force base. Lee was only five when his parents were killed so he didn't know what really happened to them, just that mommy and daddy were gone. I did. I was the one called on to identify the bodies of my brother and his wife. The fire from the car wreck was so bad that..." He paused as his voice became hoarse with emotion. "...the only way I was able to identify them was by their wedding bands and the inscription on the inside of them. I was the best man at my brother's wedding the day he married Jennie and helped them plan the whole thing. I remember how he worried that their rings wouldn't be done on time because of the special engraving they'd requested, but it was important to him to have something special for the woman he loved. I never saw Matt as happy as I did that day. He loved Jennie so much, and then when Lee was born a little over a year later, I worried endlessly for their family. It's not right that I had to bury my little brother, that Lee grew up without knowing how much his parents loved him, how much they loved each other."

"Maybe that's just one more thing you should tell him."

"Maybe," he said contemplatively. "I don't know. When he was growing up and he'd ask about his parents, I just could never bring myself to talk about it. It was too painful. I tried to raise him like I trained my recruits so he'd be tough. I knew once he was out of my care, someone down the road may try again to hurt him and I wanted him to be able to defend himself. I couldn't let anything happen to him with the memory of my brother hanging over my head. I'll never forget the first time that I saw Matt holding his newborn son, the look of joy in his eyes...it was...it was beautiful. I don't know if Lee ever told you this or if he even realizes it, but he's the spitting image of his father. He's so like my brother and not just in his looks. He has the same spirit, the same attitude. I think that's part of the reason that I never really let myself get to close to him, especially once he started playing James Bond. I have worried every day since he took that job that I'd one day get the same call that I did in 1955 asking me to identify the body of my nephew the way I did with my brother." He paused as he took another sip of his drink. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that the worry is something you never get over. I've been living with it for fourteen years now and it never gets any easier. Nevertheless, I really do think that with Amanda by his side, I can worry a little less. She's been good for him."

"I have to admit, he's been good for her too," Dotty acknowledged.

"It's getting late," He said as he drained the last of his scotch. "I should probably let you get some sleep."

"Well, with the way the two of them were looking at each other before they went to bed, I doubt I'll be getting too much sleep with my room being right next to theirs," she said with a grin.

He chuckled and said, "Probably not."

"Thanks for the chat," she said sincerely as she trotted up the stairs her head filled with new information about her son-in-law and a new perspective on her daughter's career.


	2. Chapter 2

Once entering their bedroom, Lee quickly locked the door and took his wife in his arms kissing her passionately. Amanda responded instantly, sliding her hands up to rest on his chest, opening her mouth beneath his gasping as his tongue tangled with hers and sighing in contentment at his hands on her hips as he pressed her against the door. When they broke apart both gasping for air, Lee said, "I have been wanting to do that all night," as he ran his fingers through her hair.

"Me too," she whispered hoarsely still trying to catch her breath.

"Did I tell you how beautiful you looked tonight," he whispered low in her ear as he nuzzled the tender skin there as he pushed at the lapels of her suit jacket to drop it to the floor.

"You might have mentioned it once or twice," she replied with a smile as she angled her head upward to allow her husband better access to her neck while she stripped him of his tie and jacket. She then began to work on the buttons of his shirt slipping her hands inside to caress the taut muscles of his chest beneath.

Lee groaned at her touch pulling his head back to gaze at her. "Well, you did, you do. You're every bit as beautiful as the first time I saw you wearing this." He then captured her lips with his own again, kissing her until his breath gave out again. He leaned his head against her, gazing into her eyes. "Just as sexy as the first time I helped you out of it, too," he said as he began to undo the buttons on her blouse one by one exposing the satin and lace camisole beneath it.

"Big difference this time," Amanda said as she undid the buttons on his cuffs and yanked the tails of his shirt from his pants. "No maid bustling around to keep us apart."

"God, you don't know how much I wanted to forcibly remove her from the room. I swear to God, Amanda, I have never seen anyone move so damn slowly in my life."

Amanda giggled as she dropped his shirt to the floor and said, "I wasn't thinking of forcibly removing her, but I desperately wanted to tell her to stop worrying about making the bed since we were just going to mess it up again anyway."

"And so we did," Lee said with an amorous smile as he sat on the bed and pulled his wife into his lap, lowering his lips to her shoulder as he tugged at the bottom of her camisole, Amanda helping by raising her arms over her head to remove the garment. He slowly ran his finger around the edges of the scar on her now-exposed chest.

"There's another big difference between then and now," Amanda said as she watched him outline the scar with his fingers. "Not so sexy, huh?"

"Don't, Amanda," Lee said as he placed a tender kiss to her lips. "This is something that will always remind me how precious you are to me, how close I came to losing you and now that I think about it, our baby too." He lowered his hand to our stomach lightly caressing it. "If you'd died, our baby would have too," Lee choked out his voice strangled by the emotion he felt.

"Shhh," she said placing a calming finger to his lips. "I'm alive. Our baby's alive and we're here together. Don't think about the what-ifs anymore. Isn't that what you told me about this shooting, to stop torturing myself with the what-ifs?" She rose from his lap for a moment and stepped out of her shoes, Lee following suit, kicking off his own shoes. She then began to work on loosening his belt while he unzipped her skirt, dropping it to the floor, leaving her in just her panties.

Lee once again sat on the bed and pulled her to him, placing soft kisses to her abdomen where he knew their child was growing within her. He looked up at her standing over him as he ran his hand over her stomach again. "There's a part of me still inside you," he said reverently as if the revelation had just hit him.

Amanda placed her hand over his and replied softly, "Yes, there is." She leaned down and kissed him tenderly. She was delighted when she felt him respond by sliding his hands up into her hair deepening the kiss. As their kisses grew more heated again, she lowered herself back onto his lap astride him, her hands on either side of his face. She pulled back for a moment, gazed longingly into his eyes, her hands still on his face and said in a low, raspy voice, "There's another part of you that I want inside me."

"Patience, my love," he said as he ran his fingers through her hair. "I want to take my time making love to you tonight, just like I did on our wedding night." He lowered his hands to the bare skin of her back, just savoring the feeling of her soft skin. He pulled her further into the bed with him and rolled her beneath him, kissing her again as he clasped his hands with hers, before lowering his lips to her earlobe taking it between his teeth causing her to cry out. He paused to smile at her then resumed his task lowering his head again to suckle the tender pulse point at her neck while she freed one of her hands from his to caress his back, sighing at the feel of his lips on her skin.

"Lee," she gasped at his touch feeing the desire to touch him too. She soon freed her other hand, moved both hands to his hips and pushed frantically at his pants in an attempt to lower them.

Lee raised his head again and said, "Uh-uh. Not yet."

"You're just teasing me," she said in frustration.

"I haven't even begun to tease you yet," he said with an impish grin. He then grasped both of her hands pinning them above her head as he kissed his way down her chest capturing one nipple in his mouth.

Amanda cried out and said, "Honey, stop a second." When he only continued what he was doing, she said more emphatically, "Stop." At hearing the tone in her voice, he stopped what he was doing and rolled away from her with a sigh.

"What? You don't get your way, so you just want to stop. I don't get it. Ten seconds ago, you wanted...I mean...I...I thought you wanted to make love. Now, all of a sudden, you want me to stop touching you."

"It's not about not getting what I want. I _do_ want to make love and I never said I wanted you to stop touching me," Amanda said as she scooted closer to him laying her head on his shoulder and draping her arm across his chest. "I love the way you touch me. I just need you to take it a little easy."

"That's exactly what I was trying to do," he said staring at her in irritation. "You seemed like you were enjoying it, so what gives?"

"I meant that I need you to take it a little easy on my breasts. They're a little...well...they're...um...a little sensitive right now."

"Oh, God, I was hurting you." Lee said in understanding mentally kicking himself.

"No, not hurting, exactly. It's...it's just during the early weeks of pregnancy, they get a little...tender while my body's preparing to turn them into a milk factory for the baby."

"So, in other words, look, but don't touch," He said.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't still make love. I'd appreciate it, though, if you could kind of be a little careful around that area for a while."

"Just let me know what I need to do and I'll do it. This is all new to me," He said a little self-consciously as he reached up to caress her face. "In all my experience, making love to a pregnant woman is something I've never done until now."

"You can still touch me in other places," she said then demonstrating by reaching for his hand and placing it on her hip. "I'll tell you if there's something that I don't want you to do or if it's uncomfortable." She then placed a soft kiss to his lips as she trailed her hand down his chest to his stomach, then even lower to finish the job she started on his pants, not stopping until she'd worked her hand inside to cup him while she lowered his lips to his chest.

"Oh, Amanda," he groaned at the feel of her hand on him, her lips on his skin. He raised his hips to allow her to slide his pants off of him, his boxers following behind them.

Amanda sat up to remove her panties and toss them to the floor as well. She then reached for her husband's hand guiding it between her legs and said huskily, "See what else my body's been preparing for."

Lee rolled to his side, taking his wife's lead and began stroking her softly as he kissed her tenderly relishing the way she moaned into his mouth at the pleasure he was giving her. He pulled back from their kiss as he continued touching her, smiled at her mischievously and said, "So, I'm guessing this is ok?"

"Oh, yes," she gasped in response, gripping his shoulder tightly as the sensations intensified. She pushed him onto his back and said firmly, "No more teasing." She straddled his hips and guided him into her, sinking down onto his manhood and taking all of him in. "Oh, Lee," she cried out as he let out another groan at their renewed connection.

Lee grasped his wife's hips as she began to slowly rock against him eliciting low moans from him, "ohhhh, Amanda," he groaned as she moved maddeningly slowly.

Amanda leaned forward bracing herself with her hands on his chest to keep her tender breasts from brushing against him. She grinned and him said, "Like that, do you?" and then kissed him firmly.

Lee's response was to raise his hips while pulling down on hers to drive himself deeper into her, moaning against her mouth. "God, yes," he said when their kiss ended. "But now who's being the tease?" He used his hands on her hips to flip her onto her back, pulling her legs up around his own hips as drove into her as hard as he could causing her to cry out as he increased the pace.

"Oh, you like that?" he said with a mirthful grin at her response.

"Mm-hmm," she moaned as she gripped his shoulders and raised her hips up to meet his. "Feels so good," she said her voice coming out in raspy pants.

Lee slipped one hand between them, stroking her again while he moved within her until he felt her muscles clenching around him and heard her crying out with her release causing him to quickly follow. "Oh, Amanda," he cried out once again with his own release. Mindful of her tender breasts, he propped himself up on his elbows as he leaned in to kiss her. He rolled them both to their sides and held her while his heart rate slowly returned to normal.

She ran her hand lazily down his arm and once her breathing had slowed enough to speak normally again. "So, what do you think about Fielder's hot tamale theory now," she teased.

Lee chuckled, placed a quick kiss to the top of her head and replied, "I think he severely underestimated the hot tamale factor. I think you're more like spicy buffalo wings. They look innocuous enough until you bite into them, but then look out! Then the more of them you eat, the hotter they get."

Amanda giggled at Lee's analogy and said, "Spicy buffalo wings, huh?"

"Oh, yeah," he said with a smile.

"You know, those actually sound kind of good right now," Amanda said.

"You're kidding? It's almost one AM," He said.

"I know, but I worked up an appetite," she said. "I mean, after all we did just burn a lot of calories."

"Is this one of those weird pregnancy food cravings that I've heard some of the married guys at work talk about?" he joked.

"Probably," she said. "Would you mind getting me some wings?"

"Where do you think I'm going to get spicy wings at one in the morning?"

"Don't you spies have your ways?" she teased.

Lee couldn't help but laugh and said, "I'll see what I can do," not sure how he was going to manage it but willing to try to make his wife happy. He placed one more kiss to the top of her head before getting out of bed to get dressed.

He descended the stairs a few minutes later dressed in jeans and a tee, car keys jingling in his hand. He was about to head to the front door when his uncle's voice stopped him. "What are you still doing up or do I even need to ask," Robert Clayton said to his nephew from the couch as he sat up.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lee said tensely.

"When I went up to change out of my uniform and get ready for bed, I couldn't help hearing your...um...activities," he replied.

Lee grimaced and said in irritation, "You were listening to us?"

"Not intentionally, but it was rather hard not to hear since neither of you was very quiet. Since Amanda's expecting, don't you think you should let her get some sleep?"

"Well, if you were listening good, you might have noticed that Amanda had no complaints," Lee fired back. "Not that my private life with my wife is any of your business."

"No, you're right, it's not," his uncle conceded. "And you're right again in saying that I never heard her complain, but the question is, would she really complain? It's very obvious that she's completely in love with you and would do anything to make you happy." He reflected back on his dance with Amanda and the glowing look she'd had on her face when she'd looked at his nephew, how it had struck him then how deeply in love with him she was.

"Who said that it was about making _me_ happy? Judging by her response, I'd say I made her pretty happy too," Lee said hotly. "You can just never let me live my life, can you? You're always so damned judgmental, nothing I do is ever good enough for you. My college degree, my job, my relationships...now you're sitting there judging me just because I enjoy making love to my wife."

"I'm not judging, Lee," the colonel replied. "I'm glad to see that you're finally on the verge of settling down, but I won't lie and say that I'm not concerned just like your friends are. Given your track record with long-term relationships, or lack thereof, I can't help but wonder, like they do, how long this will last and how serious you are about her, especially since there are children involved."

"Ok, I'm not "on the verge" of settling down, I _have_ settled down, and the people you're talking about are not exactly my friends. They're co-workers, acquaintances, at best. None of them know a damn thing about what Amanda and I have together or what we've been through together to get where we are, and neither do you. I want you to listen to me for a change and listen good because I'm only going to say this once. What I've done in the past is just that, past. I love my wife and I would never have married her and promised to be with her for life if I weren't serious about keeping that promise. The fact that she loves me enough that she's willing to put herself through hell to bring my child into the world just makes me love her that much more and makes me want to do everything in my power to make her happy. Why do you think I'm getting ready to go out in the middle of the night? She's got a craving for hot wings and I don't know how, but I'm damn sure going to make sure I find her some if that's what she wants."

Robert Clayton laughed. "Cravings, huh? I seem to recall your father telling me your mother used to drive him nuts with weird cravings when she was expecting you."

"Yeah?" Lee said curiously, as he uncle didn't often talk about his parents.

"Yeah, I'll never forget once when I was visiting them, she sent him on a wild-goose chase in the middle of the night for Indian food because she was having a craving for curry and was bawling like a baby because she missed the string of Indian restaurants on the east end of London. Your dad was a wreck because in 1950, there weren't a whole lot of restaurants open in the middle of the night in general, let alone those serving Indian food."

"So, what did he do?"Lee asked intrigued by the tale his uncle was telling.

"He ended up running a mess hell chef at Fort McNair out of bed," Colonel Clayton said with a laugh.

"I bet he wasn't happy," Lee said.

"Not a bit, but her could hardly argue with a superior," Robert replied with a soft chuckle. He then turned serious for a moment and said, "God, did he love your mother. She was his whole world...until the day you were born, that is. If you could have seen him that day...I never saw a man so in love with a child as he was with you." He was quiet for another moment then added, "I'm sorry that I was such a poor replacement for him."

Lee was then quiet for a moment himself as he thought about what his uncle had just told him and reflected on their earlier conversation about taking on responsibility for someone else's kids. "It's not entirely your fault. You weren't prepared to be an instant dad. I, on the other hand, at least had some time to prepare for taking on Phillip and Jamie, had a chance to get to know them a little before I married Amanda. It wasn't such a shock to me as it was to you."

"Still it can't be an easy adjustment for you either. Is their father still out of the picture?"

"I wish I knew," Lee said. "He's living here in DC again, but he's bailed on them two weekends in a row and just took a mysterious vacation without telling anyone where he was going, so right now it's anybody's guess. I don't know what to think about it. He was really good about looking after them while Amanda was in the hospital recovering from her shooting, but since then I...I just don't know." He was silent for another moment, then said, "Listen, I should get out of here and go try to find Amanda her hot wings."

"Right," his uncle said. "Can't keep a pregnant woman waiting when it comes to food. Would you like some company on your hunt? I could throw some clothes on and join you."

"Yeah, that'd be nice," Lee said with a smile wanting to probe his uncle further since for the first time that he could remember, he seemed to be willing to open up.

A few minutes later, the two of them were in the 'Vette flying down the streets of DC in search of any place that was open that might serve hot wings. "You might wanna' watch your speed, Son," Robert said as he glanced at the speedometer worriedly.

"I don't need a backseat driver," Lee said.

"I'm not in the backseat," his uncle quipped. "Your car would have to have a backseat first."

"Cute," Lee said. They were both quiet for a moment before Lee took a deep breath and said, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot," the colonel replied.

"There's something that's been bugging me for years," Lee said hesitating a little, not quite sure how to ask the question that was on his mind.

"What's that?"

"Well, I have a few memories of living with Grandma Stetson from the time my parents died until I went to live with you when I was seven. They're a little fuzzy, but I remember being happy there. So, I guess my question is why did you take me in then when she didn't die until I was ten and why did it take you two years to do it? I mean, for all the years that you told me you were just living up to your family obligation by raising me, it never made sense to me that you waited two years to act like you gave a crap about me."

His uncle sighed as he reflected on his conversation with Dotty. "I was wondering if you were ever going to ask me about that," he said.

"Well?"

Robert sighed again and said, "A big part of the reason that I didn't want to take you in at first was that it...it was just too damn painful. I don't know if you even realize just how much you look like my brother. Even when you were a kid, you did. Every time I saw you and that mischievous little grin you always used to have on your face, I was reminded of looking after my little brother when we were growing up, seeing that same look on his face. His dad, my step-dad reminded me every day that as the older brother it was my job to keep him out of trouble. I always had a tremendous amount of respect for your grandpa Stetson. I didn't have any memories of my dad since he died during the war before I was even born, so he was the only father I ever knew. You're very fortunate that you at least have _some_ memories of your parents."

"I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if I wouldn't be better off if I didn't. Then maybe it wouldn't hurt so much, especially now with the boys in my life. I look at poor Jamie who was only a baby when his dad took off and how needy he is. Then I look at Phillip and how angry he is at his father and I sometimes think that Jamie's got the better end of the deal because he doesn't have as many memories of his dad being around as Phillip does. While he needs a lot of reassurance, that's a lot easier to overcome than Phillip's resentfulness."

"You sound like you know them very well," his uncle mused.

"I do. I told you I'm serious about taking care of my family and trying to be the best dad I can be to them, but you still haven't fully answered my question."

"You must be quite the interrogator on the job," Robert replied with a smile. When Lee just glared at him, he said, " Alright, you win." He took a deep breath and plunged on. "The first time I visited my mother's home after your parents died and I saw you looking so lost, it reminded me of how unfair it was that my brother died when he was only thirty-five. That's younger than you are now. My mother and I discussed what was going to happen to you and she suggested then that I take you since I was younger, actually I was about the age you are now, but losing my little brother, seeing you looking so much like him...it was just too..." He stopped abruptly unable to continue. "I'm sorry."

"I get it," Lee said softly as he got a little choked up himself never having seen his uncle display such raw emotion. After a long pause to compose himself, he asked, "So, what made you change your mind?"

"I can't talk about it," Robert replied.

"Oh, come on now," Lee said in annoyance. "Don't clam up on me now, not when you're finally starting to act like a real person. What, are you afraid that I'll see that you actually have some real feelings?"

"No, it's not that, really. I just can't talk about it. It's classified. You should understand that better than anyone." When Lee glared at him sideways, he said, "Keep your eyes on the road."

"What could possibly be classified about you taking me out of my grandmother's home and into yours?"

"To be honest, I don't know all of the details myself. All I can tell you is that there was an attempt on your life just before your seventh birthday. Your grandmother was attacked and hospitalized and you were too. You actually spent your seventh birthday in the hospital. If it hadn't been for a neighbor hearing the commotion and calling the police, you'd have both been killed. My mother and I had a long conversation while she was recovering and we both agreed that you'd be safer with me since the attacker was never caught."

"How come I don't remember any of this?" Lee questioned. "I don't remember ever being hospitalized when I was that age."

"I'm not surprised. You were doped up on pain medication a lot of that time due to your injuries. The guy who attacked you cracked your skull. You spent a lot of that time unconscious. I wondered sometimes when you were growing up, if there weren't some residual memories there though. Ever since that happened, you always hated to go to the doctor for anything, even routine checkups. There was one time, I had to give you a sedative just to get you to the doctor for your vaccinations."

"Huh," Lee said with a shake of his head. He'd wanted to learn more about his uncle and in the process was now learning more about himself as well. He was about to say something else when a siren and flash of lights behind him stopped him. "Oh, shit," he grumbled as he obligingly pulled the 'vette to the curb.

"What did I tell you," his uncle gloated. "And watch your language."

Lee rolled his eyes at his uncle, reached for his registration and rolled down the window as the cop approached them with the typical, "Do you know how fast you were going?"

An hour later, having finished with the cop and after finding an all-night pizza place that also sold wings, Lee and his uncle walked back through the front door of the house, takeout bag in hand. "I can't believe you got out of a speeding ticket by flashing your agency ID at him and what I really find hard to believe is that he was dumb enough to buy that tall tale you told him about your partner being in danger."

"It wasn't entirely a tall tale," Lee argued with a mischievous grin. "My partner was in danger of not having her craving satisfied."

Robert shook his head, laughed and said, "I guess that much is true. You'd better get that up to her." He nodded at the bag in his nephew's hands. "Though as long as we've been gone, she may have just gone to sleep."

"That'd be just my luck," Lee said as he reached the landing leading upstairs. He paused before heading up, turned to his uncle and said, "Thanks...for everything." Before his uncle could reply, he quickly sprinted up the stairs to the bedroom he shared with his wife. He opened the door as quietly as he could just in case she had fallen asleep.

When he entered the room, he found that not only was she still awake and now dressed in her normal cotton nightgown, but she had agency files strung across the bed. "What took you so long?" she said as she looked up from the file she was reading.

"It's a long story," He said. "What are you doing?" He gestured to the folders on their bed.

"I was just going through all the "evidence" Mrs. Frampton has compiled against us in case we need to come up with a defense a month from now."

"Well, that can wait," Lee said as he used his free hand to take the folder in her hand away from her and handed her the takeout box. "Here, you should eat."

"Thank you," Amanda said with a warm smile unable to believe he'd actually been able to procure hot wings in the middle of the night. "How'd you manage it," she asked. Lee recounted his adventures with his uncle while Amanda ate and he picked up the scattered files. Amanda laughed as he told her how he'd gotten out of the speeding ticket. "You are a dedicated partner," she said with a smile.

"I am," He said. "And as a dedicated partner, I say that since we have the next week off, we leave these alone until we're back on the clock." He then deposited the files on the dresser stripped down to his boxers and climbed in bed with his wife. "And as a dedicated husband, I think you should get some sleep," he added as he kissed her cheek.

"I will," she promised. "I just want to finish these first, especially since you went to so much trouble to get them for me. Besides that, they are really good."

"Yeah?"

"Mm-hmm," she said.

"You've got a little sauce right here." He placed a kiss to the corner of her mouth licking at the buffalo sauce there. "Mmm, spicy," he said with a smile.

"Now, would that be the sauce or me you're talking about," she teased.

"Both," he said with a laugh. "But mostly you," he added his voice full of love for her.

"Good," she said with a nod as she turned back to her midnight snack her heart as full as her stomach was becoming.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Just a little FYI, toward the end of this chapter when Amanda and Dotty are talking about the circumstances of Lee's proposal and her abduction by Addi Birol, some of the descriptions in the flashback come from an un-filmed scene in the script of "Nightcrawler," just slightly modified to fit story format instead of script format.

Lee stepped into the kitchen the following morning to find his uncle and his mother-in-law chatting and laughing amiably while the boys ate breakfast at the table in the corner of the room. Lee raised a questioning eyebrow and his uncle just shook his head. Lee then turned to Dotty. "Please, tell me there's coffee," he said stifling a yawn.

"In its usual place," Dotty replied. "Late night?"She inquired with a bemused expression on her face.

"You could say that," Lee answered as he shuffled to the coffee pot, reached into the cabinet to take two cups out and began to prepare them the way the he and Amanda each liked their coffee. "Of course, our room being right next to yours, as you like to constantly remind us, you probably already knew that," He added with a grin. He took a sip of his coffee, tossing the spoon he'd used in the sink, replacing the cream in the refrigerator before leaning against the counter opposite the island where Dotty and Bob were seated.

"Speaking of which, where is your bride this morning," his uncle asked.

"She's getting dressed. She'll be down in a minute," he answered just as Phillip came barreling past the island to put his breakfast dishes in the sink, then scooped up his skateboard and made his way to the back door.

"Halt!" Lee said causing the thirteen-year-old to stop dead in his tracks, his hand still poised over the doorknob.

"What?" Phillip said turning slightly toward his step-dad.

"Where do you think you're going?"Lee said sternly.

"I was just gonna' go outside and practice," Phillip explained.

"Uh-huh, Chief," Lee said firmly. "Not without your gear," he added with a nod to the protective gear piled on the corner of the island. "Knee pads, elbow pads, helmet. Your mother would skin me alive if I let you go running around the neighborhood on that thing without them."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Phillip said as set his skateboard down, begrudgingly trudged back to the counter and began to strap on his gear as he was told.

"Ha ha, Bozo," Jamie crowed as he moved to put his own dishes in the sink. "Knowing you, you'd do some crazy stunt and fall and crack your fat head open."

When Jamie said that, Lee was distracted for a moment from the thought of breaking up the pending argument between the two brothers as he normally would, his thoughts reflecting back on his uncle's revelation of how he'd come to live with him when he was a boy of seven. He looked at his uncle who just smiled at him seeming to understand what was on his mind.

"Hey! At least I've got the nerve to try new stuff, unlike you, you big scaredy-cat!"Phillip fired back.

"Boys, knock it off," Amanda said as she descended the stairs and entered the kitchen, Lee handing her the coffee he'd prepared for her. "Thank you, Sweetheart," she said greeting her husband with a kiss. She raised the cup to her lips to take a sip until the strong smell of the coffee overwhelmed her and she pushed past her husband to the sink, dropping her coffee cup into the side of the sink with the breakfast dishes while she emptied the contents of her stomach into the other. Lee quickly put his cup down, raced to his wife's side, pulled her hair away from her face with one hand and gently stroked her back with the other until her retching subsided.

"Are you ok?" Lee asked in concern as he wrapped his arms around her.

Amanda raised her head, smiled weakly as she leaned into his arms and said, "Yeah, but I'm thinking I'm going to skip the coffee today. Just one whiff of it sent me reeling."

"You sure it's not the hot wings rearing their ugly heads," Lee teased.

"I don't think so," Amanda said as she pulled herself from Lee's embrace and began to run water in the sink. "They didn't seem to bother me last night. They were delicious, although not so good coming back up."

"Here, you go sit down. I'll take care of this," Lee said as he kissed the top of her head and gestured toward the now empty table in the corner that the boys had just vacated.

Amanda smiled gratefully at her husband, nodded and sat at the table. Jamie approached her, placed a hand on her shoulder and said in concern, "Are you ok, Mom?"

She reached for his hand, placed a kiss on it and said, "Yeah, Sweetie. I'm ok. It's just this baby brother or sister of yours is making me a little sick. I assure you, though it's just a normal thing that moms go through when they're having a baby."

"Did I make you sick too?"Jamie questioned.

"Yeah, you sure did," she said as she brushed a stray lock of hair out his face, "but not as much as your big brother over there," Amanda said with a nod toward Phillip. "Now, I don't want you to worry about me. This part will go away before you know it." She was trying to reassure her son, but she was honestly a little worried herself because her morning sickness was more severe than it had been with either of the boys and she was more fatigued that she had been during her previous two pregnancies. She'd tried to write it off as just being older now than she had been, but it was beginning to concern her. Not wanting to worry anyone else with her fear, she smiled through her worries and said, "Now, why don't you and your brother go on outside and get some practice in before the competition this afternoon."

"Are you sure?"Jamie asked warily.

"I'm sure," she said with a firm nod even though she really wasn't. "Now, go on."

As the boys went outside, skateboard and protective gear in tow, Dotty said, "Do you feel up to some breakfast?"

"Maybe just some toast or something until I'm sure that my stomach's settled," Amanda answered.

"Sure," Dotty said as she rose from her seat.

Lee, who'd just completed his task of cleaning out the sink and had been watching his wife's interaction with Jamie crossed the room to his wife and said, "So, you wanna' tell me what's really going on?"

"I don't know what you mean," Amanda said evasively.

"Lee, can I get you something?"Dotty said while she busied herself with the toaster.

"No, thank you, Dotty," he said. "You should know by now, I'm not much of a breakfast person."

"It's no wonder you and my daughter are such a perfect match. You are just as stubborn as she is," Dotty said with a shake of her head.

"I could have told you just how stubborn he can be," Bob said with a smile. "He makes mules look agreeable."

"Very funny," Lee said and turned his attention back to his wife. "Speaking of stubborn..." He gave his wife a pointed look. "What's really going on here?" he asked as he knelt in front of her, placing a hand lightly on her stomach.

"Nothing," Amanda answered not sure she should share her fears with him yet because she didn't want to diminish his excitement about the fact that he was going to be a father by making him worry. "I already told you, morning sickness is just a normal part of pregnancy."

"Don't give me that. That may work on Jamie, but not me. I know you too well. I saw that momentary look of panic on your face. I've seen it enough times over the years when we've been in tight spots to know what it means. You're worried."

"It's nothing, Sweetheart," she said as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"Amanda," Lee said in a warning tone not willing back down when it came to her health.

"Look, really I'm fine," she said then looked at him with an impish smile. "It's really only a problem in the beginning with the baby making me sick. Kind of like when I met you, you made me sick at first too, so it's no wonder that your baby is as well," she joked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Bob burst out laughing, "I can see that," He said.

"You're both just a riot," Lee said sardonically with a glare at his uncle before turning back to his wife, a serious look on his face, "Amanda, come on, level with me here. Is there something going on with you that I don't know about? Or with the baby?"

Amanda sighed as she realized that her husband was not going to let her off the hook. "It's...I...I'm just a little...you know, concerned. The symptoms are a little more severe than they were with either Phillip or Jamie.."

"Do we need to take you to the doctor," Lee asked worriedly.

"No, I don't think so. I have my appointment on Friday. I can ask about it then. You know I'm probably just worrying for nothing. It may just be because I'm older now than I was then. I mean, after all, twenty-five is a lot different than thirty-six. That's probably all there is to it."

"Maybe," Lee said skeptically. "I just don't want anything happening to you or our baby. I want to know that you're both safe and healthy." He placed a tender kiss to her forehead and added, "Surely, after all we've been through recently between the PD-2 incident and your shooting, you can understand that. I mean, we both nearly died within weeks of each other."

"Yeah, I understand that," she said as she leaned into him. "If I recall correctly, you nearly dying is what led to this baby' conception." She gave him a sexy smile.

"Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do, Amanda Stetson," Lee said sternly trying not to be swayed by her seductive smile as he was still worried about her.

"Listen, If I thought there were any real danger to me or the baby, I would go to the doctor right away. I'm probably just being silly, anyway. You know how I think too much."

"Yeah," he said with a chuckle. "I know that all too well."

Dotty arrived with a plate of toast for Amanda and set it in front of her. "Here, you should try to get something in your stomach," she said.

"Yeah, I just hope Scarecrow Junior here will let me keep it down," she extracted herself from her husband's arms. "Maybe that's the problem. Maybe this baby has already inherited your aversion to eating breakfast," she teased as she slowly munched on her toast.

"Cute," he said as he stood and returned to his perch against the countertop and finish his coffee while he let her eat.

Bob sat at his seat and had watched this whole scene and between being a witness to his nephew's obsession with satisfying his wife's middle-of-the-night craving, his concern for his stepson's safety, and his concern for Amanda's well-being, he was convinced now more than ever that Lee had been sincere when he'd said he was a dedicated family man. He smiled at the thought before rising from his seat and saying, "Dotty, thank you for the delicious breakfast. I really should be going to get moved in to my new barracks. Do you mind if I use the phone to call a cab?"

"That's not necessary," Amanda chimed in. "Since Lee doesn't eat breakfast he can drive you. We've got some time before we have to be at the skate park."

Lee glared at Amanda knowing exactly what she was up to but knowing she wouldn't let it go, said, "Sure. Just let me get my keys." He quickly trotted up the stairs.

"You know that's really not necessary," Bob said. "I'm fine with taking a cab."

"Now, there's no reason for that when we have two cars here and Lee doesn't have anything to do right now, anyway," Amanda said. "Besides, it'll be good for the two of you to have some time together since you don't see each other that often."

Bob chuckled at Amanda's relentlessness and said, "You win," realizing like Lee did that he wasn't going to win an argument with his new niece. "I don't know what it is that you've done to my nephew, but whatever it is, keep it up."

"I plan to," she said with a smile that Lee and his uncle seemed to be on the right track and couldn't help but wonder what tomorrow's family dinner would bring.

Lee returned with his car keys in hand. "You ready?" he said to his uncle.

"Yeah," Bob replied. "Just need to grab my duffle," he said with a gesture to the armchair he'd left it in the night before.

"I got it," Lee said as he grabbed in and hoisted it over his shoulder.

"Drive carefully," Amanda said as she turned briefly to look at him.

"Always," he said as he blew his wife a kiss before he and his uncle headed for the door.

After the two men had left, Dotty sat across from Amanda with her coffee cup. "Now, that it's just us, do you want to tell me what's really going on in that head of yours?" she said.

"Mother, it's nothing more than you heard me tell Lee. I'm just a little concerned because my pregnancy symptoms are a little more severe than they were with the boys. But like you also heard me say to Lee, I'm probably just worrying over nothing and it's just because I'm older now that I was the last time. They do say that it can be more complicated if you're over thirty-five."

"Then there is also the fact that you were shot and nearly died while you were pregnant if my calculations are correct," Dotty said pointedly. "Don't you think that might have something to do with it. I mean, I have noticed that you're seeming pretty tired lately."

"No, Mother," Amanda said. "I made a full recovery and was given a clean bill of health. I'm sure that one thing has nothing to do with the other." She couldn't help but wonder though.

"Amanda, your heart stopped. That can't have been good for your unborn child. In fact I'm amazed that you didn't lose the baby when that happened with your body being put through that kind of trauma."

"Mother, the doctor says that I'm fine and that the baby's fine."

"But that's your general practitioner and you haven't been to see your OB/GYN yet."

"And I saw one of the agency's doctor's and they hire some of the best in the business," Amanda responded. "Mother, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Lee, if I thought my health or that baby's was in any real danger, i would go right away to the doctor. Now, will you please stop worrying." She clasped her mother's hand to reassure her.

"I guess you really don't want to talk about this, but I can't really say that I'm surprised since you haven't really shared your life with me for years. I'll drop it for now, but don't think that means that I'm going to stop worrying. I'm your mother and I will never stop worrying about you any more that you will ever stop worrying about the boys."

Amanda reacted to her mother's dig about not sharing her life with a grimace and said, "Mother, I've told you repeatedly that I'm sorry about the secrets I've kept, but you know that I had good reason for doing so. The way that you've been reacting, there are times that I wish that Lee had never told you the truth. All it's done is make things worse between us."

"Well, you're not wrong about making things worse, but you _are_ wrong about wishing he'd never told me the truth." Dotty sighed, paused as she thought about it a little more and said, "On second thought, maybe you're not wrong. Lee shouldn't have told me the truth..._You_ should have."

"Mother," Amanda said in an exasperated tone.

"Don't give me that annoyed look, Amanda Jean, I have had enough of it. Every time I think you're starting to share things with me again, you get that look and you clam up."

"Is that why you felt the need to eavesdrop on my private conversation with my husband the other day?"Amanda asked pointedly not having forgotten that she was irritated with her mother for spying on her.

"Well, how else am I supposed to learn anything about your life when you won't open up?"

"So, you what, resort to spying on me, on my husband, intruding on our private life?"Amanda asked incredulously.

"Like you have any room to talk about spying. Don't you delve into people's private lives on regular basis?"

"That's for my job...", Amanda began but was cut off by her mother.

"Besides, it's not like you and Lee make that much effort to keep your private life all that private, do you? It's just a good thing that the boys are all the way at the other end of the hall where they can't hear what the two of you get up to after they've gone to bed."

"Mother, you're being ridiculous. The boys are old enough to know what goes on between a husband and wife behind closed doors. Besides, they know that I'm pregnant and they've known for a long time where babies come from."

"It's one thing for them to know about it, it's quite another for them to be exposed to their mother screaming in the throes of passion. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that you're happy and that you and Lee obviously have a healthy sex life, but you could tone it down a little."

"So, what you're saying is I should suppress myself when we're...making love just because you don't approve? You didn't raise me that way. You raised me to always be open about what I was feeling and I'm not about to apologize for taking pleasure in being intimate with my husband."

"First of all, I never said I didn't approve and second, I find it rather hypocritical of you to use that fact that I taught you to be open with your feelings to make your point because clearly the bedroom is the only place that bit of advice has sunk in. Or maybe it's only with Lee that you choose to take that advice. You're not open with me with your feelings at all."

"You're jealous," Amanda said.

"What? No, I'm not," Dotty denied.

"Oh, yes. Yes, you are. This isn't about you hearing what goes on in our bedroom. This is something entirely different. You're jealous that I share things with Lee that I don't with you."

"That's nonsense," Dotty replied evasively.

"No, it's not nonsense," Amanda argued. "In fact, it makes perfect sense. You're upset that there are things he knows about me that you don't. Something you have to understand is that we've been doing this job together for four years, put our lives on the line together, faced near-death experiences together that have created an unbreakable bond between us. And a lot of those experiences are things that neither of us can share with anyone else. One, because they're classified and two, because no one else would understand everything we've been through together. I know you hate feeling shut out and I am trying really hard to share more things with you, but you are going to have to understand that there will _always_ be things that you don't know about me because of the kind of work I do."

Dotty was silent for a beat and said, "Why didn't you tell me you killed someone?"

"Mother, it's class-"

Dotty cut her off again and said, "Amanda, I swear to God, if I hear the word "classified" come out of your mouth one more time, I am going to scream. I'm not asking you to give me all the details. I understand you have to keep those things secret, but you could have told me the basics. I heard your entire conversation with Lee about it and you were obviously hurting over having to take someone's life, but I didn't know anything about it because once again, you chose not to open up to me."

"Mother, I couldn't. Not when it was related to a case."

"Amanda, I know now what you do for a living. All you would have to do is say, "Mother, I had to take someone's life today and I need help dealing with it" and you could have done that without betraying your oath of secrecy. Instead you chose to keep it do yourself and let me just sit here and fret and worry, not knowing why you weren't being yourself. You are just so closed off lately, I don't feel like I know you at all."

"I am _not _closed off," Amanda protested. "You heard the speech I gave last night, that's about as open as it gets."

"Maybe not with Lee, but you certainly are with me," Dotty argued. "When I overheard your conversation the other day, it broke my heart to see how much pain you were in and that you didn't feel you could trust me enough to share that pain with me."

"What would you have done if I _had_ told you, huh? You'd have just had that horrified look on your face, just like you did the first time that you saw me strapping on a gun. Then you would just be lecturing me about how dangerous my job is as if I don't already know after four years exactly how dangerous is it."

"Amanda, I don't know what I would have done. I may not have been able to help you through it, but I could have at least offered you some kind of support or tried to comfort you. I know you well enough to know that if you took someone's life in the line of duty, it was because you had no choice. You're not the kind of person who would just kill someone in cold blood. I don't know what I'm supposed to do here. When I think back on the last four years and all the times you've come home with the car in a million pieces or come home burned, drenched, bruised, cut or looking like you've been crawling through a swamp..." Amanda laughed at this last part "...what's so funny?"

"Sorry, Mother, I'm not laughing at you, I promise. I was just thinking about a time with Lee and I _were_ crawling through a swamp."

"You care to elaborate?"Dotty probed.

Amanda sighed, opened her mouth to protest, the relented and said, "Ok, I'll tell you what I can, but if you ask a question that I tell you that I can't answer, I'm going to have to ask you to accept that."

"Ok," Dotty said. "Let's hear it."

Amanda launched into the story by saying, "It all began with an undercover agent no checking in when he was supposed to..." Amanda told the story of the night she and Lee ended up chained together, leaving out the details pertinent to the case and ended with, "...I thought for sure that Lee was finally going to really kiss me that night, but then we got interrupted by the guys who were chasing us."

"Hmmm..."Dotty said with a shake of her head.

"What is it, Mother? You wanted me to share things with you, now you don't look so sure. This is exactly why I keep a lot of things to myself or share them only with Lee. You've got that look on your face again, like you're horrified."

"No, Amanda, not horrified," Dotty clarified. "I was just thinking that being chained together and hunted down like animals, running through a swamp doesn't sound like the most romantic setting for a couple's first kiss."

"I know it doesn't to you, but if you understood just how much Lee and I have been through together, it would make perfect sense to you just how romantic that setting was."

"I would very much like to understand," Dotty said sadly. "Like I said when you first came back, you've had this whole relationship with Lee that I was unaware of. I missed out on your courtship, your dating, the two of you falling in love, your wedding, everything. From the pieces that I've been able to put together, from what Lee told me in the hospital, you and Lee were already engaged by the time I met him, yet you pretended like the two of you had just begun dating and getting to know each other outside of the office."

"Well, we weren't quite engaged when he came to see you to tell you that I'd be gone for a while," Amanda said shuddering slightly at the memories of her torture at the hands of Addi Birol.

"But you were serious enough that he'd already bought you a ring. He told me that when you were in the hospital and that when he went in to rescue you, he couldn't wait any longer to ask you to be his wife."

"That's true," Amanda said smiling at the other memories of her abduction. "He wasn't there ten minutes when he asked me."

"Huh," Dotty said with a slight smile.

"What it is, Mother?"

"I was just thinking, that was exactly the way that Lee described it when he told me about it. You two are obviously very...I don't know...in tune with each other, with how the other's mind works."

"Yeah, we are. I don't know how to describe the bond we have, how to really put it into words...I...um...I feel more connected to him than I ever have to anyone in my life and when I was a hostage, that connection is what helped me get through it. It sounds crazy, but all through that ordeal, I kept hearing him talking to me..."

_"I'm not gonna' let him sell you to the Libyans," Lee said firmly._

_"I'm not crazy about that part either," Amanda said giving him a worried look._

_Lee, seeing her look, tried to explain what he was thinking, "Two year, three in the desert, the Bekka valley..._ _every so often, they put you on parade...then one day..." he paused as his voice became choked with emotion. He composed himself then continued, "...I can't. You'd give it up."_

_Amanda looked at him quizzically and said, "I've been dreaming you were with me, Lee...It's kept me going. In my dreams, you kept telling me the same thing...'Don't give it up, Amanda...Don't give it up.' Don't give up what?"_

_"The will to live...The only thing a hostage has left...But if they can get it, they'll take that too." He paused for a moment then continued. "If you heard me in your dreams... you heard my prayers. I didn't want to get here too late...If you give it up, you never get it back."_

_"You got here in time...I knew you would. My will to live is all mixed up with you."_

_"I had hoped to 'get her in time' under different circumstances."_

"It was right after that conversation that he proposed to me. I thought for a moment that I was still hallucination. I had wanted it for so long, hoped for it, dreamed about it while I was a hostage..It took me a minute to register that it was real...I even repeated the question to make sure I wasn't still dreaming."

"Wow," Dotty said softly. Both women were quite for a moment before Dotty spoke again. "Did I ever tell you all the details of the day he came to see me and introduced himself to me?"

"No, he never really did either, just that he wanted to know that I was going to be gone longer."

"I just was thinking that the conversation I had with him just before he left makes perfect sense with what you just told me. Looking back on it, the way he reacted to the things I said to him before he left, I should have guessed then that he was thinking about marrying you."

_Dotty was walking Lee to the front door to say good-bye and said, "Next time, I want to hear all the detail of the grand adventure you went on with my daughter."_

_"It was all a big mistake," Lee answered._

_"You sound just like Amanda. She hasn't told me enough about her job in the last three years to fill a post card."_

_"It's pretty routine..."_

_"But what routine? She comes home, soaking wet, scorched...sometimes she doesn't come home at all..." Dotty paused for a moment. "I tell her to get married, put on a few extra pounds...There's a routine...Not a thrill a minute, but you don't get scorched."_

_"Sounds pretty good," Lee said with a smile._

_"Then you tell her," Dotty said emphatically. "Maybe she listens to you better than she listens to me."_

Amanda laughed and said, "You told him to tell me to get married?"

"Yes, I did and it seems he took my advice. Of course, thinking about it, I didn't have to tell him anything at all because he was already planning to do just that."

"Well, you got your wish. I'm married." Amanda laughed again as she placed a hand over her stomach and said, "And I'll definitely be putting on a few extra pounds."

Dotty laughed to and said, "Yes, I guess you will," as she embraced her daughter happy that they'd at least temporarily breached the gap between them.


	4. Chapter 4

While Dotty and Amanda were having their heart to heart, Lee and his uncle were doing the same.

"So, it seems you've become quite the father-figure to Amanda's boys," Bob mused. "The way just one word from you stopped the older boy...Phillip?"

"Yeah, Phillip," Lee answered.

"The way you stopped him dead in his tracks, the way he listened to you..."

"Yes?"

"Well, it's more than I could ever get you to do when you were a kid. Those boys seem to have a great deal of respect for you. How do you manage it?"

"To be honest, I'm really just winging it with the boys. I...uh...I admit, I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I think I'd be a complete disaster at this dad thing if I didn't have Amanda there by my side. She's such an incredible mom. It seems like she always knows just the right thing to say or do with the boys to get through to them. I've mostly just been watching her, trying to learn from her."

"Winging it?"Bob said incredulously. "You've got two impressionable young boys in your care and you're winging it?"

"Well, it's not as if I had any great, shining examples of what a father is suppose to do when I was growing up," Lee countered

"Hmmm," Bob said as he bit back a retort. He didn't want to go down that road again. He'd done the best he could with Lee as a child under the circumstances. His primary goal had always been to keep him safe in honor of his brother. He had been a bachelor and it's not as if he'd had any kind of guidebook to tell him how to be an instant dad to an obstinate seven-year-old. That thought had brought him back to the first time he'd visited Amanda at the house and how the conversation they'd had.

"What?"

"Oh, I was just thinking of the conversation that Amanda and I have about raising kids the last time I was in town. I said that I wished kids came with an instruction manual and she told me that that would be much too easy and not as much fun."

Lee laughed heartily as he relaxed a little and said, "Sounds just like my Amanda."

They were silent for a moment, the Colonel staring at his nephew and the wistful smile on his face before he spoke again. "Wow, you're really in love. I never thought I'd live to see the day."

"To tell you the truth, neither did I. If anyone would have told me that a seemingly simple housewife would be the one to get me to settle down, I'd have told him that they needed some industrial-strength therapy. With all the crap I've been through in my life, all the loss I've suffered through, I just figured it wasn't in the cards for me, so I built the wall around my heart and I was bound and determined to never let anyone get close enough for me to feel that kind of loss again. I had completely closed myself off to the idea of happily ever after, of falling in love. I never thought that any woman would ever be able to get me to let my guard down that long, but Amanda...She...she took me by surprise. I sometimes still find it hard to believe."

"After that party last night, I'd say your co-workers are inclined to agree with you. It seems some of them still don't believe that you're serious about her. I have to admit that I was guilty of thinking that too. I want to say I'm sorry for that."

"Yeah, well, I don't know why I expected anything different from you," Lee said bitterly.

"Oh, come on, Lee. I'm admitting that I was wrong here. Why can't you just accept my apology and move on? You're always so damned defensive."

"Because you're always so damned critical," Lee countered.

"Look, Lee, the only times that I have ever criticized you for anything were when I thought it was in your best interest, trying to do what was right for you," his uncle answered.

"And just who the hell are you to decide what's right for me?"

"I'm the one who took on a duty to look after you. It's my responsibility to make sure that you're not throwing your life away."

"That excuse may have flown when I was a kid," Lee argued as he gripped the steering wheel tightly trying hard to keep from blowing up, "But I'm not a kid anymore. I'll be thirty-seven in just three short months and that's a far cry from the terrified seven-year-old boy you took in."

"Wow, hard to believe it's been almost thirty years," Bob said thoughtfully. He was lost in thought for a moment as he reflected on Lee's words. "Terrified?" he questioned. "You were terrified? Of me? Did I do something that terrified you then?"

"No, not really. Not of you, specifically," Lee said but didn't elaborate.

"Then what were you terrified of?"Bob asked with a look of concern on his face. He'd tried so hard over the years to protect him, to keep him from being scared, to keep him safe and was now thinking that he'd failed in that task. "You already said that you didn't remember being attacked."

"I don't and ever since the talk we had about it last night, I've been trying hard to remember any details of that time and it's all a blank until I was back at Grandma's house. I don't even remember leaving the hospital."

"Then why? What had you so scared?"

"You really wanna' know what I was scared of?"Lee asked in a softer tone, bewildered by the fact that it seemed that his brusque uncle actually cared.

"Yes, I'd really like to know," his uncle said in a probing tone.

"Ok, I'll tell you. I was scared to death of leaving Grandma's to go live with a guy that I didn't really know. I had a home with her for almost two years after my parents dies and I felt like...like once again the rug was being pulled out from under me. I still missed my mom and dad like crazy and I didn't know you or anything about you."

"Come on, Lee, you know that's not true. You knew me. I used to visit your house all the time when your parents were still with us. Every time I had any leave, I was at their house or my mom's. How else would I know the stuff I told you about your mother's midnight cravings or how your dad reacted when you were born?"

"I don't have a lot of memories of you being around when they were still alive," Lee said. "And I don't recall you ever visiting Grandma's house after they died until the day you came to take me away from her."

"Is that how you saw it? That I was taking you away from your grandma?"

"I don't know," Lee said in a frustrated tone wishing to God he had all those memories that his uncle did. "I just know that I felt like after losing my mom and dad and being yanked from their home that I was being forced to leave another home and to top it off, when I was living with you, we never had a real home. We just moved from place to place, from barracks to barracks. Why do you think that my home life with Amanda and the kids is so important to me? For the first time since I was a little kid, I have a real home, a real family, a place where I fit it, where I belong."

"Huh," Robert said. "Well, I'll tell you, you're not wrong about me not visiting after your parents died. After the funeral, I stayed long enough to help you get moved in to my mom's house, and then I went back to my barracks. I wanted to visit, but seeing you when we buried them, how much you looked like your dad, it was like a knife in the heart. I just kept seeing him when he was a kid, so I stayed away. It's not right that I had to bury my little brother so young."

"Don't you think that was a little selfish on your part?"

"Selfish? Now, who's being critical?"

"Think about it," Lee said. "You're not the only one who lost him. Did it ever occur to you that Grandma might have needed some support from you? I mean, you buried your brother, but she buried her son. A parent should never have to bury their child. Then there's me, I lost not only him, but my mom too. Yes, you lost your brother and that had to be painful for you, but did you ever think about it from my perspective. I was just a little kid and I lost both my parents."

"What, you think I didn't care about your mom? Let me assure you, that you couldn't be more wrong about that. I loved your mother. She's was like a sister to me. She was so good for your dad, kept him in line like I used to when we were kids. She was an amazing woman, just like your Amanda. I could never figure out how she managed it, especially once you started school. She was this PTA mom by day, spy by night and still managed to make the perfect Bundt cake. That was on top of working her ass off to keep your dad out of trouble."

"Somebody should have kept them both out of trouble," Lee said quietly a hint of sadness in his voice. After a beat, he said, "You know, I'm going to have the boys by myself tomorrow since Amanda and Dotty have a girls day planned. I was thinking I might take them out to Arlington National to visit my parents. They've both been asking questions about them, particularly Jamie, and since you're in town, I thought maybe it might do you some good to join us." When he received no reply, he glanced over at his uncle to see had tears formed in the Colonel's eyes. "You ok?" he asked.

"Eyes on the road, Son," was the Colonel's only reply blinking back the tears. It would do no good to let them fall. Besides, he'd always taught his nephew that tears were a sign of weakness and he'd be damned if he were going to give in to that kind of weakness. He abruptly changed the subject. "For what it's worth, I approve."

"You approve? Of what? Taking the boys to the cemetery?"Lee questioned, not quite ready to give up on getting his stoic uncle to open up.

"No, not that. I meant your marriage, you and Amanda. I think she's just what you needed. Of course, it's not like you ever needed it or cared if you had my approval on anything you've ever done in your life. You've always just done whatever you wanted whether I approved or not."

"Is that what you really think? Yes, I've always been my own person and made my own decisions about my life, which by the way is _my _life. The thing you don't get is that I always wanted your approval. Don't you realize you were the only thing close to a father that I ever had? I know you had this dream for me of following the family trend of joining the military and when I didn't, all you ever saw me as was a damn disappointment. That's something I going to make damn sure that I never do with my kids."

"You were never a disappointment to me," Bob said. "Not ever."

"No? Then how do you explain your reaction when I told you what I wanted to do for a living. Do you remember that big fight we had about it, when you actually tried to forbid me to join the agency?"

"As if that would have stopped you," Bob said sarcastically. He was quiet again for a moment as he thought about Dotty's advice of the night before to tell the whole story. "Just so we're clear, I didn't argue with you about your career choice because you were a disappointment to me. I didn't want you to do it because I cared too much about you to want to see you end up like your parents. I didn't care if you joined the military or not. I just didn't want to see you in the same career path that killed your parents. You are the only family I have left and I couldn't stand to lose you the way I lost them. Aside from that, when I took you in, I took on the responsibility of making sure that you were safe. I wouldn't have been living up to my duty to you if I hadn't said something to you."

"There you go again, talking about your responsibility again," Lee grumbled. "Why can't you ever, just once, see me as a person and not a duty?"

"Come on, Lee, you just said yourself that I was the closest thing to a father you ever had. That comes with that responsibility and that parental responsibility doesn't go away just because your kid grows up."

"I get that, but you can't live my life for me," Lee countered.

"Ok, look at it this way, you and Amanda are taking the boys out to the firing range today, right?"

"Yeah," Lee replied. "I suppose you're going to lecture me about that too."

"Not at all," Bob answered. "I think it's smart. The kids should know how to protect themselves if they need to with the line of work you and Amanda are in. That's the same reason I taught you about weapons and self-defense when you were a kid. Even if you hadn't joined the spy game, I always knew there was a chance that your life could be in danger just because of your parents' career."

Lee pulled through the gate at the base. His conversation with his uncle was put on a temporary hold while he identified himself to the MP and they were waved through. He found a place to park, then turned to his uncle and said, "Then why bring it up?"

"There is a point to it if you'll just stop interrupting and getting defensive long enough for me to finish."

"I'm sorry. You're right. Go on," Lee said.

"Ok, like I said, I think it's a great idea to teach the boys about weapons because you never know when they might need that education, but suppose that this sets one or both of them on the path to following in your footsteps, Phillip, for example. In just the short time that I've been around them, I can already tell that he looks up to you, respects you...Hell, the boy practically worships you. So, just suppose a few years from now, he comes to you and tells you that he wants to be a spy just like you and his mother. Wouldn't you feel that it was your duty as a father to voice your opinion, to try to talk him out of it in order to keep him safe?"

"I guess that's where you and I are different. I would never try to talk him out of something like that if I knew it was what he really wanted to do. I would have a long talk with him, though, about how dangerous it is."

"This is exactly what I was trying to do with you when you were twenty-three. I needed you to know how concerned I was about your safety, but the way you and I have always butted heads, it didn't work out the way I planned. You immediately went on the defensive and told me to butt out of your life and if I didn't approve..."

"I remember what I said," Lee interrupted. He'd told his uncle if he didn't approve, he could kiss his ass. He'd said a few more things that he looked back on and cringed. "The point that I'm making is that kids have to be free to make their own choices and their own mistakes. How else are they going to learn? You can try to tell a kid what's right, what's wrong, and how to make the right choices, but until they've been down the road you've been down, they won't always trust what you have to say. They have to learn for themselves." Lee thought back to his conversation with Phillip about girls and smiled that his stepson had taken his advice and had been successful with it.

"Well, _you_ certainly did," Bob pointed out. When this comment earned him a scowl from his nephew, he said, "Ok, I guess it's none of my business how you raise your kids."

"You're right, it's not," Lee replied.

"I should get going anyway. Thanks for the ride," Bob said as he made a move to get out of the car.

Lee followed and pulled his uncle's duffle from the trunk. As he handed it to him, he said, "You know, the invitation still stands. You know, if you want to join me and the boys tomorrow."

"I'll think about it," Bob said. "Either way, I'll still see you for dinner tomorrow night,"

"Right," Lee said.

"So, I'll see you then."

"Yeah, seeya'," Lee said. He then watched his uncle make his way into the barracks he'd soon be living in full-time and sighed as he thought about how far they still had to go to bridge the gap between them. He couldn't help but wonder what Amanda would think. He knew she would ask how it went. What was he supposed to tell her? He shook his head. Thinking of his wife reminded him that he needed to get home if they were going to get the boys to the skate park on time for the competition.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Late that afternoon, the family was gathered in the agency's underground indoor firing range, getting ready for their target practice Lee and Amanda both making sure that their weapons were loaded with blanks. Lee slammed the clip into place firmly and said, "So, who wants to go first?"

"I do," Philip said eagerly.

"Ok," Lee said. "Let me show you some things first." He demonstrated for Phillip how to properly hold the pistol, how to disengage the safety, the proper stance for minimum recoil. "You think you got it?"

"I think so," Phillip said with a nod.

"Ok, good," Lee said as he guided Phillip toward the target. "Now, I'm going to stand behind you because the recoil can knock you off-balance if you're not used to it."

"Recoil?"Phillip questioned.

"Yeah, stupid," Jamie said sarcastically. "It's basic laws of physics. Maybe you've heard of something simple called Newton's third law of motion. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

"You're absolutely right, Jamie, but there's no need to call your brother stupid to prove your point," Amanda said. "Just because he doesn't have all of Newton's laws memorized like you do, that doesn't make him stupid."

"Well, he could if he'd just try. It's not that hard," Jamie said.

"Not all of us can be eggheads like you," Phillip countered.

"Well, no all of us are dumb jocks like you," Jamie fired back.

"Fellas, come on," Amanda said. "Knock it off."

"Your mother's right. Now, let's get to what we came for. You ready, Phillip?"

"Yeah," Phillip said but didn't sound quite as confident as he had at first.

"All right, stand straight, plant your feet like you do in basketball and keep them about shoulder-width apart. Now, gently squeeze the trigger, don't yank it."

"Whoa!"Phillip said as he fired off the first round, the force of it knocking him backward into his stepdad while Jamie laughed uproariously at his brother.

"Told ya'," Jamie crowed gleefully.

"You just wait for your turn and see how much you're laughing then," Amanda said.

"That's what I warned you about," Lee said. "You didn't do too badly for your first try. It'll be a little easier now that you know what to expect. Amanda, why don't you get Jamie stated while I help Phillip finish off this clip?"

Amanda guided Jamie to the target next to her husband and showed Jamie how to handle her weapon while fired off the remaining five shots from Lee's Beretta.

Once Amanda had finished explaining to her younger son how her gun worked, he glanced at it warily. "Is that the same gun you killed that lady with?" He inquired.

Amanda sighed, knelt to reach eye level with her son and said, "Yes, Jamie, it is, but I want you to know something. It wasn't my intention to kill her, just to stop her from killing Lee. You already know from our talk the other night that she killed people and you know that we can't talk a whole lot about the specifics of what we do, but I can tell you this. If I hadn't stopped her, she was going to sell secrets that would have gotten a whole lot of innocent people killed."

"What kind of secrets?" Jamie questioned.

"Mm-mm," Amanda said with a shake of her head. "Like I told you last year, when Lee and I got in the trouble that we did that caused us to disappear for a while, a secret's a secret. Part of mine and Lee's job is to protect secrets, most of the time because protecting those secrets protects people and protects this country that we live in."

"I get it," Jamie said.

"So, are you ready to give it a whirl?" she said indicating the revolver in her hand.

"Yeah," Jamie said. "I need to learn."

"Good, let's go to it."

Lee smiled having watched the interaction between mother and son and marveled at how much more comfortable Amanda had become at talking about her shooting of McGill without stressing out about it. _Good, _he thought as he turned back to Phillip to continue his work with weapons training.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Amanda and Lee after having made sure the boys were sound asleep were climbing into be themselves wearily, the day having worn them both out. "What a day," Lee said as he and Amanda snuggled up together under the covers. "This family stuff is exhausting."

"Too exhausting," his wife queried.

"No, I'd much rather fall into bed tired from spending time with our family than from chasing bad guys," he said with a smile.

"So, speaking of family, how did it go with your uncle today?"

"About like you'd expect. We talked a little, but you know how we are, two minutes of talking and we're at each other's throats again. He still doesn't approve of my job and I don't get it. I've been doing it and doing it well for fourteen years. You'd think that would earn me a little respect from him."

"He does respect you. Mother and I had a long talk while you were gone and she told me that she and your uncle had quite the in-depth conversation last night after we went to bed. She said that he told her how proud he is of you and the job we do together."

"Proud?"Lee scoffed. "You coulda' fooled me."

"I think he just worried about you because of what happened to your parents, just like mother worries about me, like I worry the boys. That's what family does."

"Just like I worry about you," Lee said not having forgotten their conversation from earlier. "And I worry about the boys too. I almost had a hard attack seeing that one stunt Phillip did during the skate competition when he was up in the air. I thought he was going to fall and land on his head. I kept picturing us rushing him to the emergency room, but he nailed that landing."

"He's been practicing a lot. I have to admit that I was a little worried too. I mean, no matter how old they get, they're still my babies."

"I know. Right now, though, I'm more worried about this baby," Lee said as he lightly stroked her stomach. "Why won't you tell me what it is that you're really worried about? We're supposed to share stuff like this with each other."

"I know. I just...I...I saw how happy you were the day I told you that I'm pregnant, how excited you were about being a dad, and I didn't want to take away from your excitement by worrying you that it might not happen."

"Is it that bad? Are you in danger of losing the baby?"

"I don't know. I wish I did. I just keep thinking of everything that's happened, my shooting, the action I've been involved in out in the field since I've been back, the physically demanding part of the infiltration class, and my symptoms are so much more than with either of the boys so I can't help but wonder if the baby's ok. Then there's the PD-2."

"Oh, God," Lee said. "I was infected with it the day we made this baby. You don't think I could have infected you, do you?"

"I don't think so. Dr. McJohn said it kills within 72 hours, so I highly doubt it."

"But it could have been passed on to the baby?"

"I don't know. I mean, if it's supposed to kill in that short of a period, probably not. I'd probably have lost the baby without ever knowing I was pregnant, but who knows? The effects of it might be different on an unborn baby, but then again they might not," Amanda said. "Like I said earlier, I might be just worrying for nothing."

"But you might not be. I'm calling Dr. McJohn right now," Lee said.

"No, Lee don't," Amanda protested.

"You're not talking me out of this, Amanda. I'm not taking any chances with your health or our baby's," he said firmly as he reached across her for the phone.

Two hours later, after running McJohn out of bed and making an impromptu trip to the agency infirmary, Lee and Amanda climbed back into bed all smiles. "I guess now, we need that bigger house more than ever," Lee said as he pulled his wife into his arms, a bright smile on his face as he caressed her abdomen.

"I know," Amanda said, her smile as bright as Lee's. "Of all the things I thought could be causing the added symptoms, it never occurred to me that it might be twins."

"You heard what he said, though. That means you need to start getting more sleep, so we should let you get some," Lee said. He kissed her softly then said, "Good night, Sweetheart."

"Good night," Amanda replied as she cuddled up to her husband falling into the most peaceful sleep she'd had since their wedding night.


	5. Chapter 5

March 15, 1987

At not seeing her daughter and son-in-law come downstairs for breakfast, Dotty had become concerned as she'd heard them leave late the night before, but didn't recall hearing them return. She tentatively knocked on their door. "Lee? Amanda?" she called through the door. At hearing no response, she tapped on the door again, "Are you up?" At still hearing no response, she began to get worried that they'd been called away on some case that had kept them out all night. She bit her lip nervously, hoping that they weren't in any danger. She knocked for a third time, harder than she had the previous two and this time, heard a loud groan of protest.

"Come on, you two," Dotty called.

The door was flung open by Lee clad only in a pair of pajama pants, "What is it, Dotty?" he said running a hand through his sleep-mussed hair.

"Breakfast is ready and it's getting cold!"

Lee glanced at the clock and sighed when he realized how late it was, "Sorry," he said sheepishly. "We had a late night."

"Oh?" Dotty said with an arched eyebrow.

Lee gave her a disdainful look and said, "Get your mind out of the gutter, would ya? It's not what you think."

"My mind's not in the gutter," Dotty said. "I was just wondering if your late night had anything to do with the fact that I heard the two of you sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night."

"We weren't _sneaking_ out of the house, Mother," Amanda said as she pulled on her robe having been woken by the conversation going on.

"But you did leave," Dotty said.

"Yes, we did," Amanda answered.

"Was this some urgent case?"Dotty asked in concern. "I remember you saying that bad guys don't work nine-to-five."

"No, Mother, we had some personal business to take care of," Amanda replied as she slipped her arms around her husband from behind planting a kiss to his shoulder.

"What on earth kind of personal business could you possibly be taking care of in the middle of the night," Dotty said disbelievingly.

"I will explain everything later, I promise. Just give us time to wake up and get dressed, okay?" She released her husband and kissed her mother's cheek. "I promise you, it's nothing bad. In fact, it's good news, isn't it, Sweetheart?"

"Yes, it sure is," Lee said beaming at his wife as he slipped his arms around her and brushed a soft kiss to her temple.

"Okay, if you say so," Dotty said skeptically.

"We'll be downstairs in a bit," Lee said.

"Alright," Dotty said with a shake of her head as she made her way back down the hall and to the stairs.

She sighed at hearing her grandsons embroiled in yet another argument as she re-entered the kitchen.

"Did not!"Phillip said.

"Did too!"Jamie fired back in his brother's face.

"Did not!"

"Did too!'

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dotty said interrupting their debate before it could escalate any further. "Who did or did not do what, Jamie?"

Phillip jumped in and said, "Bozo, here thinks-"

"Halt," Dotty said interrupting Phillip. "You'll get your turn, Phillip. I'm asking Jamie first and don't call your brother Bozo." She then turned to her younger grandson and said, "Jamie?"

"Well, Lee said that he was going to let me decide what we're going to do today while you and Mom are doing your girly thing."

"He did not!"Phillip argued.

"Yes, he did!" Jamie fired back. "He said it at dinner the other night that since you wanted to play basketball last weekend that this weekend, we could do what I wanted to do!"

"Did not!"Phillip shouted again.

Dotty shook her head again and said, "Phillip, your brother's right, but I think that Lee has his own plan for spending time with you today, something that he wants to do."

"That's so not fair," Jamie grumbled. "When is it going to be my turn to pick something to do?"

"You'll get your turn today, Jamie," Lee said as he entered the room now fully dressed in jeans and a sweater. "I promised you that."

"Great," Phillip muttered folding his arms across his chest.

"Hey, now, Phillip, don't be that way. The important thing is that we spend some time together, right?"

"I guess," Phillip grumbled just as his mother entered the room.

"Hey, Phillip," Amanda said. "Lee's right."The important thing is for you guys to spend some time together." Phillip nodded in response. Amanda smiled at her husband and found herself once again impressed with the way he'd just thrown himself into his fatherhood role. She lightly caressed her abdomen as she thought of what a wonderful father he'd be to his own children. _Children, _she thought her smile widening as she thought it. She'd wanted to give Lee a child of his own and now she was going to be giving him not one, but two.

Lee then turned to Jamie and said, "There is just one thing I want to do with you guys, something that's important to me, then the rest of the day is yours."

"You mean it?"

"Yeah, I mean it," Lee said. "I made you a promise and I intend to keep that promise."

"Good," Jamie said with a smile at how different his stepfather was from his own father. Lee had never broken a promise to him yet and he father did nothing but break promises to him and his brother. He felt a little guilty for the way he'd treated Lee in the beginning when he'd assumed that he was only hanging out with him because he had to. He reflected back on the speech he'd made at the party and realized how true his words were. Lee really had given them another parent, one that would be there and keep the promises he made.

An hour later, Lee was parking the station wagon in the parking lot of Arlington National Cemetery. As he and his stepsons exited the vehicle, Jamie looked at him quizzically as he slung his camera bag over his shoulder and said, "Lee, what are we doing here?" though he thought he knew.

Lee swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat as he glanced at the neat, orderly headstones all set in perfect rows and said in a soft voice, "There's someone I'd like to introduce you to, actually, two someones." He nodded toward the headstones. "Come on, I'll show you," he said as he reached for his younger stepsons hand.

Jamie took Lee's hand, squeezing it tightly at seeing the pained look on his stepfather's face. He gave his brother a pointed look and Phillip quickly took the hint and took Lee's other hand as the three of them made their way across the cemetery grounds together, all three silent until they reached their destination.

Jamie glanced at the headstones in front of them and said softly, "Wow," as he read the names and dates engraved on them, "Your mom and dad."

"Yeah," Lee said as he gazed at the headstones reverently. He released the boys' hands and knelt before them. "Mom, Dad, I know it's been a long time since I've been here..." Phillip looked at Lee in confusion, then at his brother who just shook his head as if to say "Pay attention," both boys turning back toward Lee and kneeling beside him, Jamie laying a comforting hand on Lee's shoulder as he continued talking to his parents, "...but so much in my life has changed. I have a family now. You've met my Amanda, but you haven't met our boys, Phillip and Jamie," he said as he wrapped one arm around each of them. "You boys wanna' say hi?"

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Jamie said respectfully while Phillip remained eerily quiet.

"This one's Jamie," Lee said squeezing the younger boy to him. "He's very reserved, but also very observant. He's very much like you, Mom. He notices everything and even though he may not say anything about it, he always knows what's going on." He smiled at Jamie who smiled back. "The unusually quiet one to my left here is Phillip. He's more like Dad and me, always saying what's on his mind, sometimes without thinking first sometimes letting that get him into trouble the way that I do. Even though these two boys are very different, I want you to know that I'm immensely proud to have both of them in my life. I hope that you're as proud of me as I am of them."

"Of course, they are," Phillip said finally finding his voice as he wrapped his arm tighter around Lee's waist leaning his head against his shoulder. "You're a hero, just like they were."

"How do you know they were heroes?" Lee asked him curiously. "I've never talked to you about them much."

"They wouldn't be buried here if they weren't," Phillip said as if the answer should be obvious. Jamie looked at his brother in confusion surprised that he would know this. "What? We learned about it in my Virginia history class."

"I'm just surprised that anything from that class sank in through your thick head," Jamie said.

Lee couldn't help but laugh as he hugged both boys closely to him. "I wish you fellas could have met them."

Jamie pulled back slightly, nodded to the stone markers and said, "In a way we have. You're a part of them."

Lee glanced at Jamie in wonder at just how perceptive he was. "You're right, I am," he replied.

"In a way, we kind of are too," Jamie said.

"How do you figure," Phillip said. "As much as we love Lee and he loves us, we're not really related to them."

Jamie gave his brother a disgusted look and said, "It's simple, Stupid."

"Hey, don't call your brother stupid," Lee admonished.

Jamie shook his head and continued. "Lee may not be our dad by blood, but he is in every way that counts. That's something that he chose to do. Losing him mom and dad so young made him who he is. They died heroes, which made him want to be a hero too. Part of that is Lee choosing to love us. He didn't have to do that just because he married Mom. Look at how many kids we know in school who have stepparents who just tolerate them. Lee's not like that. The fact that he made a choice to love us as his own makes us a part of him which makes us part of them too."

"That's very wise, Jamie," Robert Clayton said from behind them with a smile having watched the interaction between the three of them for some time, but hanging back not wanting to intrude on their moment together.

"Thank you, Colonel Clayton," Jamie said with a bashful smile.

"I'm glad you made it," Lee said as he released the boys and stood to greet his uncle.

"Yeah," Robert said. "I wasn't sure that I should, but the more I thought about the conversations we've been having the past couple of days, the more I thought that my little brother would want me to be here with you." He nodded toward Matthew Stetson's headstone as he stepped closer to join them. He himself knelt, ran his fingers over the engraved dates, and said in a choked whisper, "God, they were so young." Lee placed a hand on his uncle's shoulder in a comforting gesture deeply moved, as he had never seen the hardened military man ever display such raw emotion. While they were talking, Jamie pulled his camera out and began to snap pictures of the headstones, making sure to zoom in the way that Lee had taught him in order to capture the engraving on them.

"I know," Lee said. "They were younger than Amanda and I are now and we're really just beginning our life together."

"They both loved life so much, loved each other so much and you'll never know how much they loved you," Robert said as he glanced from on stone to the other before rising to his feet and turning to face his nephew placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "They'd be very proud of the man you've become. _I'm _very proud of the man you've become and these boys are damn lucky to have you in their lives."

"Yeah, we are," Phillip said as he wrapped his arm around Lee's waist again while Jamie continued to take pictures wanting to capture the moment.

"Thank you," Lee said his own voice choked with emotion. There was a long moment of silence as all four of them glanced back toward the graves reverently. Lee sneaked a sideways glance at his uncle and was shocked to see silent tears streaming down his usually reserved uncle's face. As if sensing he was being watched, Robert turned again to face his nephew once again placing his hand on Lee's shoulder. "Listen, I should give you a moment with them," Lee said.

"No, it's ok," Bob said. "This is something you and I should have done together a long time ago." He hastily looked away, wiped his tears from his face, a little embarrassed that after all his years of preaching to Lee about crying, he'd been caught crying himself. After another pause, he turned back toward Lee and said, "Listen, what are your plans for the day?"

"Well, I promised Jamie I'd let him decide and he wanted to go to Rock Creek Park."

Robert nodded then turned to the younger of the two boys and said, "Jamie, do you mind if we take a slight detour? There's something I'd like to share you boys and Lee while we're all together. I promise you'll still have time to go to the park."

"Sure," Jamie said wondering what Lee's uncle had to share with them.

"What are you up to?"Lee asked warily.

"You'll see," Robert said as the four of them made their way back toward the cemetery and toward the family station wagon. "You drive. I'll navigate."

"Okay-ay," Lee said dubiously.

"Just get in the car and shut up about it," Bob groused his emotional moment gone for the moment at his nephew's distrust of him.

"Come on, Fellas, climb in," Lee said as he got into the driver's side, the boys scrambling into the back seat.

"So, did you take a cab here," Lee asked as he backed the wagon out of its space once everyone was buckled in.

"Yeah," Robert said.

"So, where are we going," Lee said.

"You'll see when we get there," Bob replied.

"Well, we won't get there if I don't know where we're going," Lee argued.

"I said I'll navigate," Bob said. "Turn left up here." After about ten minutes, at the Colonel's direction, Lee was turning off the highway and into a gated storage complex. Lee looked at his uncle, wondering again just what he was up to, "It's the third row down last unit on the left."

Lee followed his uncle's direction and parked across from the storage unit his uncle had indicated. As the four got out of the car, he said, "So, what gives? Why are we here?"

"You're impatient, aren't you," Bob grumbled. "Keep your shirt on for a minute and you'll see." He reached into his pocket pulling out a set of keys, fumbling with it until he found the right one, unlocked the padlock on the large sliding door and said, "Give me a hand with this."

Lee joined his uncle and together they lifted the door pushing it back along its runners, Robert reaching inside for the light switch, Lee peering inside, trying to make heads or tails of what his uncle was doing. "What is all this stuff?" he asked with a curious look at Robert.

"This," Robert said with a gesture toward the crammed storage unit, "is stuff that should have belonged to you a long time ago. I've been waiting for years for you to settle down with a family of your own so I could pass it on to you. I wondered for alone time if this stuff would ever see the light of day again."

Lee stepped carefully into the unit and looked around. "I remember this," Lee said as he brushed some dust off a walnut china cabinet. "I remember Mom yelling at me about running in the house when I crashed into it one time and nearly knocked her good china all over the place." He chuckled at how similar the memory was to Amanda's frequent scolding of the boys for the same thing. "Amanda would love this," he said as he gazed at the china cabinet and the matching sideboard beside it.

"I'll be she would," Robert said. "Since you mentioned that you're going to be shopping for a bigger house, I thought maybe the two of you might like to have some of these things to furnish your new home with. By rights, it's all yours anyway. It's everything from your parents' home."

"Not everything," Lee said. "Amanda and I found a hidden room under the basement when we investigated the cause of their deaths."

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Robert said with a chuckle as he made his way deeper into the large unit until he found what he was looking for. "This, I thought might be of particular interest to you under the circumstances." He then pulled a drop cloth from the piece of furniture and motioned for Lee to come closer. "This was yours."

"Wow," Lee said softly as he ran his hand along the outer rail of the now-antique crib. "Mine, huh?"

"Yeah, you slept in it every night when you were a baby," Bob said. "I thought you and Amanda should have it for your baby."

"That's very thoughtful of you," Lee said. "The problem with that is that we're going to need more than one now."

"What do you mean, Lee," Phillip asked from behind him and he and his brother had begun exploring as well.

"Well, you know how your mom's been really getting sick lately because of her pregnancy?"

"Yeah," Phillip answered.

"I took her to the doctor last night because I was worried about how sick she was and the doctor told us that it's because there are two babies making her sick."

"Wow," Jamie said. "Twins?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about it to, Sport," Lee said as he affectionately ruffled Jamie's blond hair.

"We really are gonna' need a bigger house now, aren't we?"Phillip said.

"To say the least," Lee said with a chuckle.

"You boys are free to look around," Bob said. "In fact, I think there an old toy chest that used to be Lee's over there somewhere." he gestured to the left side of the room. "Some of the stuff you're too old for, but you may find something to interest you."

"Cool," Phillip said as he grabbed his brother's arm and half-dragged him in the direction Bob had indicated.

Bob chuckled at their antics then turned back to Lee with a bemused expression.

"What?" Lee said not sure he liked the way his uncle was looking at him.

"I was just thinking that when you got your wife pregnant, you didn't do it halfway, did you?"

"Very funny," Lee said with a slight blush. "Besides, she wasn't my wife yet. She was my fiancée' then."

"I figured that out already on my own, thanks," Bob said. "I may be old, but I haven't lost my faculties. I can still do basic math. Honestly, I'm still surprised you let it happen, that you let your guard down enough to let it happen."

"Great, here comes another lecture," Lee said with a scowl. "Can't we ever just have a normal family moment without you passing judgment on me for one thing or another? You don't know what was going on at the time! We both thought I was dying and I damn near did!"

"Lee, calm down," Bob said indicating the boys staring at Lee quizzically after his outburst.

"Hey, Guys, why don't you go on outside with that," Lee said indicating his old soccer ball that Jamie had plucked out of the toy chest.

"Sure, Lee," Jamie said with a nod to his brother.

Once they'd left, Robert glared and his nephew and said, "Contrary to your belief that we can't have a normal family moment without me passing judgment on you, I wasn't planning on lecturing you. In fact, If you'd have let me finish instead of getting so damned defensive, I was about to tell you that you must be really in love with Amanda to have relaxed that much with her, to even take the risk of getting her pregnant."

"Oh," Lee said guiltily. "Sorry."

"I guess, in a way, I deserved it. I've always come down hard on you. I know it. I just...I always wanted you to be the best that you could be and when I saw the way you lived your life for years, especially all the meaningless relationships you went through with all these simple-minded girls...I knew you could do better. I knew that you deserved better that an endless string of empty, hollow encounters. When you first introduced me to Amanda two years ago, I thought you were finally getting it right. I still believe that. I think Amanda is the best thing that ever happened to you."

"Is that why you wanted me to see all this?"Lee questioned with a gesture to the furniture piled up around them.

"Not exactly, I had a lot of time to think yesterday after you dropped me off at the base. I got to really thinking about what you said about being yanked from your home when you were a kid, so I thought that maybe whenever you and your family move into your new home, that you might like to have pieces of your old home to take with you."

Lee sighed and smiled slightly at the thoughtful gesture and said, "thank you. I'll talk to Amanda about it and see what she thinks."

"Better yet," Bob said as he took the key from the ring and handed it to his nephew. "Show her instead of just talking to her about it. This is all yours anyway."

"But don't you want any of this stuff. I mean, they were your family too."

"I know, but I have no use for this stuff. I'll never have a home of my own to put it in. You do now."

Lee took the key from his uncle and pocketed it. "Thanks," He said paused and then added, "You know you _do_ have a home. You'll always be welcome in ours. We may not have a lot of room, but we'll make a place for you if you ever need it."

"Good to know," Bob said. "Come on, let's get out of this dust and let you get your boys to the park."

"Would you liked to join us?"Lee asked as the exited the storage unit, pulled down on the door and put the padlock back in place.

"I don't want to intrude," Bob protested as he watched Phillip and Jamie gleefully kicking Lee's old soccer ball back and forth across the pavement. "I should have you just drop me back off at my barracks."

"You're not intruding. You're family." Lee said then to illustrate his point, he called the boys over. When they approached, the ball tucked under Jamie's arm, he said, "How about we take this soccer game to the park and the four of us can play a little?"

"Yeah, sounds great," Phillip said.

"That'd be pretty cool. Having four of us to play is a lot better than just three. Then we can split up into even teams," Jamie added.

"Good, it's all settled then," Lee said clapping his uncle hard on the shoulder. "I told Jamie he could do what he wanted to do today and he wants you along. You're coming with us."

Robert Clayton glanced at the two boys, then back at his nephew and said with a shake of his head and a slight chuckle, "Well, I guess I have no choice, do I? I can't let these boys down, now can I? You'd just better be prepared to lose, Son." 


	6. Chapter 6

Dotty and Amanda were perusing the racks at Victoria's Secret chatting amiably while they shopped for Dotty's big weekend getaway. "Amanda, what do you think of this one?" as her mother held up a barely-there black lace teddy.

"Wow," Amanda said her eyes dancing in amusement. "Are you trying to give Captain Curt a fatal heart attack," she quipped.

"Hmm, well, at least if I did, he'd die with a smile on his face," Dotty fired back. "So, what do you think?"

Amanda laughed and said, "I think that it doesn't matter what I think. You're the one who has to wear it. Besides, you would know better than I would what your man would like than I would. The question I really have is will you feel comfortable wearing it?"

"Oh, please, Amanda, comfort has absolutely nothing to do with it when you're trying to entice a man. Just think of all the things we women go through every day to look attractive, coordinating outfits, matching shoes and earrings, putting on make-up, walking around all day in heels. It's exhausting. I sometimes wonder why we do it at all. It's not like they're really that appreciative when it's all said and done."

"Aw, Mother, are you saying that Captain Curt doesn't appreciate your efforts?"Amanda said.

"Oh, no, he definitely shows his appreciation, in many, many ways," Dotty said with a wicked gleam in her eye as she plucked another racy outfit off the rack.

Amanda, rolled her eyes and said, "Boy, i just walked right into that one with both feet, didn't I?"

Dotty laughed at getting one over on her daughter. "Yes, you did. You know, for a woman with "spy" on her resume, you can be awfully gullible at times."

Amanda looked around nervously, hoping that no one had heard her mother's last comment then said in a low voice, "You know you really shouldn't mention the spy thing in public. Besides, I much prefer the term "federal agent."

"Oh, right, I wasn't thinking," Dotty said pausing for a beat, then adding, "You know, it doesn't matter what you call your job, or how much you try to pretty it up, it still amounts to the same thing. You work in a very dangerous job that could one day get you killed."

Amanda shook her head as she reached for a satiny emerald-green gown and in an effort to change the subject, turned to her mother with it and said, "What do you think of this?"

"That's not exactly my style," Dotty said, "And don't try to distract me into changing the subject."

Amanda still determined to keep their mother-daughter day on a lighter note said, "Well, I wasn't thinking of getting this for you. I was thinking for me."

"For you?"Dotty asked with a bemused expression on her face as she moved closer to her daughter and lowered her voice. "Surely, you don't need any extra something to entice your dashing spy. I've seen the way the man looks at you, like he's a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet."

"No, I don't _need_ it per se, but since the boys are going to be with Joe next weekend and you're going to be with Captain Curt, Lee suggested that we use the time alone to take a little weekend trip ourselves, to make up a little for our ruined honeymoon. I thought it might be nice to get a little something extra special to wear for him to reward him for his thoughtfulness."

"Well, first of all, from the sounds I've heard coming from your bedroom, I think you two have done plenty of making up for your ruined honeymoon. Second, If you really want something extra special, you could do a lot better than that," Dotty said as she approached another rack, plucked a tiny, sheer confection from it and thrust it at her daughter. "Something more like this would be appropriate for a second honeymoon."

"Oh, no, Mother, I couldn't. You said this isn't _your _style," Amanda said indicating the gown in her hands, then with a nod to the garment in her mother's hands, said, "and that's not really mine."

"Oh, come on, Amanda, don't be so provincial. I mean, after all, you're carrying the man's child so I'm sure he's seen you in a lot less than this," Dotty said pointedly. "Unless..."

"Unless what, Mother," Amanda said.

"Well, I was just thinking with the way that you're being so old-fashioned about this, maybe..." she paused as she rephrased her thought, "Please, tell me that you're not one of those women who dives under the covers and hides her attributes and makes her husband work for it. I would like to think that I didn't raise you to be that inhibited."

"Mother, come on, I think you know me better than that. No, I just prefer something a little more tasteful when it comes to lingerie and so does Lee."

"The two of you have only been married for a month, so how do you really know everything that might spark his..." Dotty paused for dramatic effect, "...interest."

"Well, as you already said, I don't need sexy lingerie to spark his interest."

"Amanda, you are no fun at all. I don't quite get it; you take risks on a regular basis for your job, so why not take one in your love life as well? I mean, what's the worst that can happen? He doesn't like it and tells you to take it off? Then in that case, you both win," She said with a grin.

"Okay, you do make a good point there," Amanda said and couldn't help but laugh as she took the lacy concoction from her mother's hands.

"Speaking of you job..."Dotty began.

"Mother, not now," Amanda said in irritation, her laughter soon fading. "Can't we just have a nice day together without another lecture about my job?"

"No lecture," Dotty said. "I promise. I was just curious about your late-night trip out of the house. You said it wasn't work-related and you did promise you'd tell me what it was about."

"Oh, right," Amanda said with a smile. "Well, we did take a late night trip to the agency, but not for work. You know that I've been a little concerned about how sick I've been getting with this pregnancy compared to how it was with the boys?"

"Yes, I've been a little concerned about that myself," Dotty replied, "But you seemed to act as if it were no big deal."

"Well, Lee's been concerned too, especially since this baby's conception happened when he was infected with a deadly virus that the Russians used to try to destroy the intelligence community. That's what led to me getting pregnant. We were both so afraid that it was going to kill him that we just wanted to hold on to each other for as long as we could in case he didn't make it."

"Oh my God," Dotty said tears stinging her eyes at the thought of everything her daughter had gone through without her ever knowing about it. "Is he...I mean, he's not still...what the word you used...infected?"

"No, Mother, no," Amanda said reaching for her mother's hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "We were able to steal the cure from the Soviet embassy, but it scared us both...a lot. It was only a week before our wedding and we...uh...we were both terrified that we wouldn't make it to our wedding day." Doty nodded in understanding as Amanda continued, "Anyway, because of that and because my pregnancy symptoms have been so severe, he was worried to the point that he made me see one of the agency doctors last night just to make sure that everything was okay. He made Dr. McJohn a little mad by running him out of bed in the middle of the night, but Dr. McJohn is a really good man and when Lee explained to him what was going on, he got to the agency right away. He understood Lee's worry because he was the doctor who helped us when Lee was infected with the virus. In fact, he's the one who put together Lee's cure and made sure that he was safe. He did some tests on me last night, including an ultrasound and he told us that there's absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Oh, good," Dotty said wiping her moist eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm so relieved. So, was this doctor able to give you an answer as to why your symptoms are so severe?"

"As a matter of fact, he was," Amanda said with a bright smile.

"Amanda, for goodness sake, would you just tell me what's going on and stop drawing out the suspense? I'd like to know that my unborn grandchild is healthy."

"Yes, _they_ are," Amanda said as she lightly stroked her belly.

"They?"Dotty said, her eyes widening.

"Yes, Mother, _they_. We're having twins," Amanda said excitedly.

Dotty squealed in delight drawing the attention of the other patrons in the store, hugging her daughter tightly, "Oh, Amanda, I'm so happy! I'm going to have two new grandchildren!" She bounced excitedly up and down as she held her daughter tightly.

"Oh, Mother, don't shake me, please," Amanda said feeling a little queasy as she pulled back from her mother. "I really don't want to lose my breakfast again."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Amanda. I wasn't thinking. I'm just so, so happy," Dotty gushed.

"I get it. I mean, I am too, but just because I know what's causing it now, that doesn't make the symptoms go away. Dr. McJohn said that I need to make sure that I'm getting more rest and that I'm eating little small meals or snacks several times a day to keep up with what I'm losing because of the severe morning sickness."

"That makes sense," Dotty said. She was silent for a moment as the news fully began to sink in. "This mean you're_ definitely_ going to need a bigger house. That means, I should really think more seriously about Captain Curt's invitation to move in with him. You're going to have a very full house and I'd just be taking up more space that could be used for the children. I mean, this weekend trip that we planned was because he wanted me to at least give the cohabitation thing a shot before I said no and he thought the weekend away could be like a trial run. Maybe if things go well next weekend, I'll think about reconsidering it. Then there's the fact that you and Lee are still newlyweds and you really don't want me underfoot. You need some priva-"

"Mother, stop," Amanda said interrupting Dotty's ramble. "That's the last thing I want, especially now that I know that I'm carrying two babies and not just one. I'm going to need your help more than ever. I haven't really had time to process the news completely yet and now, the more I think about it, the more overwhelming it seems. Two teenage boys and two infants is going to be a lot to handle"

"Does Lee feel overwhelmed too? I imagine this must come as a big shock to him, since he's just starting to get used to being a stepfather to Phillip and Jamie and now to have two babies of his own on the way that must be making him feel a little weighted down as well."

"He doesn't seem to be. He was ecstatic when Dr. McJohn gave us the news last night," Amanda said. "I don't think that he's let it quite sink in yet how complicated this is going to make things, especially with our jobs being what they are."

"Well, maybe now is a good time to consider a career change," Dotty said pointedly.

"Mother, don't," Amanda said in irritation. "Can't we just enjoy our day together without having to argue about my job again? It's my choice and I stand by that choice. I love my job and I'm not quitting."

"Humph. You didn't seem to love your job a couple of days ago when you were crying and stressed out because you were forced to take a woman's life."

"Okay, I admit, that situation got me a little rattled because it was the first time that's ever happened. Normally, Lee is the one firing the fatal shot in situations like that, but as Lee said, she left me no other choice. It was painful, but I got through it. All these years, in the back of my mind, I always knew it could come to that where I'd have to choose between my life and someone else's or in this case, Lee's life. I guess, I tried to be optimistic and hope that it never would, but when I agreed last fall to officially start formal agent training, that was a risk that I took on. I still don't like that it came down to me taking Sally McGill's life to save Lee's, but I've come to terms with it now and...I don't know...maybe the next time...if there is a next time...will be easier and I won't fall apart like I did this time."

"Hmmm, I don't know. I seem to recall Lee saying that it's never easy to take someone's life in the line of duty."

Amanda looked at her mother in surprise and said, "Just how much of our conversation did you hear?"

"All of it," Dotty admitted, "All the way up to the two of you taking the conversation to your bedroom."

"Shame on you, Mother," Amanda said in the same scolding tone she used on Phillip and Jamie. "I cannot believe that you were spying on us all that time."

"As if you have any room to talk," Dotty scoffed with a wave of her hand. "You make your living spying on people..."

"That's different-" Amanda began but was cut off by her mother continuing as if she hadn't spoken,

"...Besides, how else am I supposed to learn anything about your life when you won't open up to me?"Dotty asked impatiently, a hand on her hip as she stared her daughter down.

"I don't know how you can say that, Mother. I've been opening up to you a lot more lately. For crying out loud, I just shared with you not five minutes ago how our babies were conceived. I can't get much more open than that. I will share with you just about anything that I can about the personal stuff within reason, but I have to make you see that when it comes to my job, there are _always_ going to be things that you can't know. I'm sorry, Mother. I know that you don't like it, but that's just the way it is and you're going to _have_ to learn to accept it."

"Fine," Dotty said in a huff as she went back to her browsing, turning her back on her daughter.

Amanda sighed, approached her mother and said, "Look, it's not negotiable. I don't think you understand how serious this is. When I took this job, I took an oath of secrecy, okay? I legally have to abide by that or I could be arrested for treason. I know you're worried and I know that this has been tormenting you, but would you rather see me in prison?"

Dotty turned, gaped at Amanda in shock and said, "It's that serious?"

"Yes, Mother, it is _that_ serious," Amanda confirmed.

"I had no idea," Dotty said softly as she pondered her daughter's words. "Of course, I don't want to see you in prison."

"I don't want to see me in prison either. I definitely don't want to be giving birth behind bars," Amanda said as she lightly stroked her abdomen. "That's why I have to keep the secrets that I do regarding my work."

"I guess I just wish I knew where I could draw the line on the types of questions I can ask you about your job and the kind I can't without hearing that dreaded word "classified" again. I swear it's become like a new four-letter word as much as I've been hearing it lately."

"Look, I'll make you a deal. I'll let you ask all the questions that you want and I promise I won't use the word "classified" again if it's something I can't answer. I'll just tell I can't answer it. How does that sound?"

"That sounds reasonable," Dotty said. "On that note, since we've been talking, something you said earlier concerns me a little and I have a questions about it."

"Go ahead," Amanda said eying her mother warily hoping that it wasn't going to be one of the many questions that she knew she couldn't answer, especially now that they seemed to be on their way to calling a truce.

"You said that you just began formal agent training last fall, right?" Dotty said

"Yes, that's right," Amanda answered.

Dotty took a deep breath as she tried to put into words what she was thinking, "And you've already told me that you've been employed there for four years."

"Yes, that's right. Actually, it'll be four years in October."

"So, then that means that the first three years, you were running around getting into all of the dangerous, potentially life-threatening situations with no way to defend yourself. How could that Mr. Melrose have allowed that? Allowed a mother of two to risk her life with no training?"

"Mother, I never said I didn't have any was to defend myself. I did have some skills from the self-defense classes that I was taking before I started working there. Billy also did let me take some classes for recruits, including some martial arts classes, weapons training, covert ops training, stuff like that and he made sure that I logged plenty of time at the firing range. I just didn't start classes to officially become an agent until last fall after that mess when Lee and I were on the run. Dr. Smyth offered that to me because of the way I handled myself during that escapade and how I bagged Sonja Chenko by myself without ever having had agent status."

"Sonja Chenko, I seem to remember you and Lee mentioning that name when you were teasing each other about your past relationships. Was she another ex-girlfriend or just one of those "Class D" interrogations? I mean, he said it was just part of the job, but I got the sense that there was a little jealousy coming from you when her name was mentioned."

"She was neither," Amanda answered. "She was a KGB agent and part of an assignment called a peacock dance." Amanda went on to explain what that was, the concluded with, "the reason that you sensed some jealousy is because I had to sit out in the car listening the entire time that he was with her and he and I were finally in a place where we were on the verge of becoming very serious about each other." She sighed and said, "This peacock dance thing really threw both of us for a loop because he didn't really want to be there and I didn't want him to be there. As it turned out, she was manipulating him the whole time because her grandfather was a spy that Lee had been responsible for putting away and she helped him set up this elaborate scheme that made it look as if Lee and I were both traitors."

"How?"Dotty inquired.

"That's a piece that I can't answer," Amanda said hesitantly desperately hoping that it wouldn't set her mother off again and destroy their fragile peace pact.

Dotty surprised her daughter by simply nodding and saying, "Okay." She then paused for a beat before asking, That's why you had to run, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, not only to protect ourselves from the agency and the KGB, but to protect you and the boys as well. Going with Lee that day was one of the hardest decisions that I ever had to make, but I knew that if I stayed there, I'd be locked up in an agency holding cell being interrogated while they looked for Lee and that you'd be left unprotected. With KGB agents on the loose who were out to get us, I couldn't take the chance that without me there to look after you, they'd come after you to get to Lee or me. I also knew that if I ran, the agency would be all over the house wanting to know where I was and where Lee was. I knew that those KGB agents would never risk attacking the house with it surrounded by the agency. The Agency might not have bothered to surround the house if they already had me in custody. Sure, they might have questioned you, but when they realized that you didn't know anything, they'd have probably left and you wouldn't know what was going on, wouldn't know how to defend yourself and wouldn't have any protection."

"Wow," Dotty said after Amanda finished her explanation. "That must have been so difficult for you."

Amanda nodded. "It was."

"But I don't see how your own people could have believed that you two were traitors. I mean, anyone who knows you, should know better. In just the short time that I've known what it is that you really do, I can see how dedicated both of you are to keeping the secrets that you have to keep. I mean, how many very frustrating conversations have we already had about it?"

"I lost count," Amanda said with a laugh. "Look, the thing about that whole incident is that it wasn't really the fault of anyone at the agency. They were just basing their conclusions on the evidence that they had and the evidence was pretty damning. If it hadn't happened to me, I could see where those conclusions came from because that's what Lee and I do every day. We draw conclusions based on the evidence that we have until we have knew evidence to contradict those conclusions. For example, this latest case that we just closed, we had no idea that the woman that I shot was the guilty party we were looking for. We suspected two different people until one of them ended up dead and she tried to kill the other one."

"And Lee," Dotty said.

"Right," Amanda said, "Though she wouldn't' have tried to kill Lee if we hadn't caught her in the act of trying to kill the other man."

"The general that your boss, that horrible Dr. Smyth was talking about," Dotty said.

"Yes," Amanda answered, "And Dr. Smyth's not so horrible." She reflected back on the past few days and how supportive he'd been about maintaining their partnership and going to bat for them with Mrs. Frampton.

"I have to disagree," Dotty said. "Though, meeting him has made me appreciate Mr. Melrose, especially now that I've gotten to know Mrs. Melrose a little. Talking to her when we were planning your party has helped me to come to terms with some of this a little better."

Amanda smiled and said, "I'm glad. Jeannie's in a similar position to yours. She knows what her husband does for a living, which causes her to worry about him, but she also knows that she can't know any of the details. I think that makes her worry more sometimes."

"You know, I think I'll call her and invite her to lunch tomorrow while you and Lee are at your parent-teacher conference."

"You don't want to tag along when we go house-shopping?"

"No, Amanda. The house-shopping is something that you, Lee and the boys should do without me since you're going to be deciding as a family where your new home will be."

"But, you're part of this family too," Amanda protested.

"I know and that's never going to change, but I'm still not sure that I should go with you when you move. I feel that you should start your new family life without my interference."

"Mother, it's not interference. Not when I want you around," Amanda said then corrected herself, "When _we_ want you around." A depressing thought just struck her. "Do you just not want to live with us anymore now that I'm married again? I mean, do you disapprove of my marriage to Lee?"

"Of course not, darling," Dotty said reassuringly. "I'm happy that you've found love again and I adore Lee. I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to throw a wedding reception for you, if I didn't approve. I just feel as a newly married couple, you should have your privacy and not have a meddling mother-in-law underfoot."

"I wouldn't exactly call you meddling, concerned yes, but not meddling and you are _not _underfoot. As for our privacy, that's already limited with having two teenage boys in the house and would be more limited without you around to keep them entertained occasionally the way you have this past week. Please, just promise me that you'll really think hard about things before making any rash decisions."

Dotty thought about what Amanda had just said and realized there was some logic to it. "Okay, my darling girl, I promise." She then turned back to the rack of sexy outfits in front of her. "Now that that's settled, we really need to settle what we're both going to do to entice our men next weekend."


	7. Chapter 7

Lee, Bob and the boys entered the house after their impromptu soccer game at the park, the boys whooping loudly.

"That was the best," Jamie gushed being a much bigger fan of soccer than basketball. "Thanks for playing with us, Colonel."

"Yeah, thanks," Phillip agreed.

"Hey, guys, why don't you head on upstairs and get cleaned up while I get dinner started?"Lee said as he stepped across the staircase landing and into the kitchen to wash his hands before beginning dinner preparations.

Bob shook his head in amazement at how easily the two boys obeyed Lee's instructions, not just now, but while they were out as well. He stepped into the kitchen behind his nephew and said, "I'll be damned, you're a real father," with a backward glance toward the staircase at Phillip and Jamie's departing figures.

Lee reached for a towel to dry his hands on, turned to face his uncle and said, "Not really. I mean, they have a father of their own and I would never try to take his place. I'm just trying to do the best I can with them."

"Well, I'd say you're doing a bang-up job with them," Bob said proudly.

"Wow, was that an actual compliment you just gave me," Lee teased. "Twice in one day, that's got to be a record."

"Don't be a smartass, Son," Bob scolded. "You should just shut up and take credit where credit is due."

"You know I would, but Amanda really deserves most of the credit. She's raised them by herself until now."

"But you've clearly been a positive influence on them," Bob replied. "I never thought I'd live to see the day that you'd be a dedicated family man, which reminds me, I have something else from your parents to give you."

"I thought all their stuff was in that storage unit," Lee said in confusion his curiosity piqued.

"All except this," Bob said as he pulled and envelope from his pocket. "I've been carrying this around since before I got on the plane Friday to go to your wedding celebration and I've been just hanging onto it until I was sure that you were really committed to the family life."

"What is it," Lee asked.

"A down payment on your new house when you find one," Bob said as he handed the envelope to his nephew.

Lee opened the envelope and his eyes widened in shock, "This is a check for a hundred grand," Lee said with a gasp.

"It is, indeed," Bob said.

"Thank you, but I can't possibly accept this," Lee said as he tried to hand it back to him. "It's too much and there's no way you can afford this."

"It's not my money," Bob said with a sigh and refused to take it. "I can see one thing hasn't changed. You still don't listen worth a damn. Didn't I just say it was from your parents?

"But how?"

"Life insurance," Bob answered.

"But that doesn't make any sense. You told me that their life insurance was spent on their funeral expenses and in raising me. I still don't get it."

Bob sighed and said, "Always the spy, aren't you? Is this an interrogation? Can't you just accept the money for your growing family and be grateful for it?"

"Okay, no, it's not an interrogation, but if you expect me to accept this money for my family, I'd be more than happy to be grateful for it if I knew where it came from." He eyed his uncle warily sure that there was something that he wasn't telling him.

"Okay, here it is," Bob said with another sigh. "Your parents had a separate life insurance policy set up just for you. They knew just like you and Amanda do how dangerous the work that you do is and they knew that if anything ever happened to them that you'd most likely end up leading the nomadic life with me. Your mother was a one smart lady, very much like your Amanda. She had a feeling that if that happened, you'd have trouble settling down for a long time. She knew you so well, you mom. So when they set this up, she insisted that there be a provision in it that you weren't to have it until the birth of your first child."

"Huh," Lee said in amazement that even though they'd been gone for thirty-plus years, in a way, his mom and dad were still looking out for him. "You're forgetting one thing, though. My first child hasn't been born yet. The babies aren't due until late October."

Bob nodded toward the stairs and said, "I beg to differ. Your first child is up those stairs cleaning up right now. In what I witnessed these past couple of days, I know that there's no way you could possibly love your own children any more than you do those two boys upstairs."

"You're right about that," Lee said.

"Look at that, we actually agreed on something for once, Bob said with a chuckle.

Lee couldn't help but laugh and said, "Yeah, I guess we did, didn't we?"

Their conversation was interrupted by Dotty and Amanda entering through the back door giggling and chatting animatedly. "Well, if you didn't get enough for your weekend getaway, there's something really wrong," Amanda said as she closed the door behind them.

Lee looked at the numerous shopping bags the ladies were carrying. "What did you two do, buy out the whole mall?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Don't be silly, Lee," Dotty said with a laugh. "We didn't even get to half the stores in the mall, did we, Amanda?"

"No, Mother, we sure didn't," Amanda said with a giggle.

"I'm going to go put these things away," Dotty said. "Thank you, my darling girl, for the wonderful day together." She kissed her daughter's cheek and then scurried up the stairs.

Lee laughed and said, "She's not taking the rest of it with her?" He indicated the three bags still in his wife's hands.

"Oh, you mean these?" she said with a mischievous grin.

"Yeah, those," he said impatiently.

"Well, these aren't Mother's, these…" she said holding them up so he could see them but held them just out of his reach, "… these are mine."

"Oh?" he glanced at the bags and fixed her with a devlish grin. "And what, pray tell, Mrs. Stetson, could you possibly have in those bags from Victoria's Secret and Rebecca's Fantasies?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased pulling them behind her back to keep them out of his reach.

"Hey, come on, Amanda, don't tease a guy like that," Lee said as he reached behind her in an attempt to snatch the bags from her hands.

Amanda squealed and darted away from him to the other side of the island, "No. I bought this stuff for next weekend when we'll have the house to ourselves."

"Next weekend?"Lee said his eyes dancing in merriment. "You're gonna' make me wait that long?" He quickly sprinted to the other side of the island and captured his wife around the waist, causing her to squeal again.

"Yes, next weekend," she said with a giggle as she still struggled to keep her shopping bags from him. "Now, let me go."

"Mm-mm," Lee said as he lightly nuzzled her neck. "Not until you let me see what's in the bags."

"Mm-mm," she said as she took a moment to enjoy her husband's nearness. "And don't think that's getting to me, Buster." She turned to face him.

"You can't tell me it's not," Lee said taking in her flushed face.

"I'll tell you what, if you behave yourself at dinner tonight, I just might give you a sneak preview of what's to come next weekend, after the boys got to bed." She planted a quick kiss ot his lips, then wriggled out of his arms and trotted up the stairs.

Bob who'd watched the whole interaction with some amusement laughed and said, "Boy, has she got your number."

Lee laughed, shook his head and said, "Don't I know it," before he started dinner preparations in earnest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Phillip and Jamie listened with rapt attention all throughout dinner as Bob told tales of his travels over the years. "Wasn't that weird for you though, not to have a permanent place to go home to?" Jamie asked him with a sly glance at Lee.

Bob glanced at Lee and said, "I think it was harder on Lee than it was on me, since he was just a kid."

"That's what our dad wanted to do with us, wasn't it, Mom?"

Bob glanced over to where Lee and Amanda were sitting side by side and noticed that Lee had visibly tensed at Jamie's mention of his father. Before Amanda could answer, Lee said, "The way your mom tells it, she didn't want that kind of life for you and having grown up that way myself, I think she made the right decision for you. It's not easy for a kid to grow up spending six months here, a year there. It's hard to make friends. I went to something like seventeen different schools before I graduated from high school."

"Nineteen," Bob corrected.

"Okay, nineteen, then" Lee said a look of surprise on his face that his uncle knew that right off the top of his head. The conversation was temporarily interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.

"I'll get it," Dotty said rising from her seat and exiting the room.

The conversation carried on with Phillip saying, "But, Colonel, wasn't that rough on you too. I mean, like Jamie said, you never had a home to go to. Wouldn't it have been better to just stay one place all the time?"

"I guess it might have," Bob said. "And enough of this Colonel business; we're family now. You boys are more than welcome to call me Uncle Bob."

"Uncle Bob," Lee questioned with an arched eyebrow. "I never got to call you Uncle Bob."

"What, I can't mellow a little in my old age," Bob replied with a chuckle. "I mean, it boys. Don't listen to your step-dad's negativity. I insist that you both call me Uncle Bob."

"Cool, Thanks Uncle Bob," Phillip said just as Dotty re-entered the room with Joe and Carrie on her heels.

Dotty was just resuming her seat when Joe looked at Amanda inquisitively and said, "Uncle Bob?"

Amanda frowned at seeing her ex-husband in the doorway. She bit back what she really wanted to say to him as she didn't want to berate him in front of their children Instead, she nodded toward Bob who was seated across the table from her right in front of where Joe was now standing, and said, "Yes, Joe, this is Colonel Robert Clayton, Lee's uncle. He's just been transferred to Bolling."

"And Amanda here was kind enough to invite me to dinner," Bob said as he stood and turned to face the other man in an attempt to ease the tension he'd seen arise in both Lee and Amanda at the intruder's arrival.

"Joe King, nice to meet you," Joe said politely but the fact that he didn't all appreciate this man buddying up to his boys was obvious. The two men very briefly shook hands before, Joe said, "This is Carrie."

"Hello," she said in a pleasant tone, but with a glare at Joe. She also shook Bob's hand only very briefly then looked expectantly at Joe.

Joe sighed and said to her, "I know. I'll get to it." He then turned to Amanda and said, "Amanda, could Carrie and I talk to you in private for a moment?"

"No, Joe," Amanda said testily. "In case you can't tell, we're right in the middle of a family dinner. Besides, there's nothing you can say to me that you can't say in front of my husband." She then made an obvious display of linking her left hand with Lee's right.

"Mom, May I be excused," Jamie asked clearly agitated by the reappearance of his father after his two-week absence.

"Me too?"Phillip said a look of pure fury on his face as he gripped his fork like a dagger.

"No, you may not," Amanda said firmly. "You both need to finish your dinner."

"I'm not hungry anymore," Phillip said as he tossed his fork and his napkin into his plate and left the table anyway tearing past his father and up the stairs.

"I'm with him," Jamie said as he followed his brother's lead.

Amanda also rose from her seat and yelled, "Phillip, Jamie, you both get your butts back down here right now and finish your dinner!"

Lee rose from his seat as well, placed a hand on her back to calm her and said, "Amanda, don't. Yelling at them is not going to help right now. You deal with your ex, I'll go see if I can calm them down, okay?"

"Yeah, Thanks," Amanda said giving him a quick kiss before he headed up the stairs after the boys. "Do you see what you've caused," she said coolly to Joe.

"Me?" Joe said incredulously. "It seems to me that a lack of discipline is what caused this. It's just like I said the last time that we talked, you've done nothing but coddle them."

"How dare you," Amanda said. "You have no right to judge my parenting skills when you've been MIA for the past two weeks and broken plans with them, not once but twice in that time with no real explanation. You have no idea of the hell that Lee and I have been going through here trying to get them to trust him after all the times you've put your own needs ahead of theirs. I put up with it for ten years when we were married, but I won't put up with it anymore. We are finally getting into a stable routine here. You can't just show up here when you feel like it and disrupt that!"

"What are you saying that now that you've got your James Bond, I'm no longer welcome in a home that used to be mine?"Joe shouted.

"And when exactly _was_ that Joe? You didn't seem to care a whole lot about this being your home when we were married, when we were supposed to be living in it together and raising our children _together_."

Bob, feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the escalating argument once again rose from his seat and said, "You know, I should really be going and let you deal with this in private."

"No, Bob, stay, please," Amanda said. "_You _were invited, he wasn't." She then turned back to her ex with an icy glare.

"You need to leave, Joe, now," Dotty said as she also rose from her seat.

"I'm not going anywhere," he snapped at Dotty then turned back to Amanda. "You may have remarried, but that doesn't mean that your new husband has any say-so over what happens here. Phillip and Jamie are still _my _sons!"

"This has absolutely nothing to do with Lee, so just leave him out of this! As for them still being your sons, that true. That will never change, but you should try remembering that a little more often!"

"Hey, what the hell is going on down here?" Lee said as he barreled down the stairs. "We could hear you two all the way upstairs in the boys' room!" He looked from Amanda to Joe and seeing the look of pure ire etched on Amanda's face, quickly raced to her side and wrapped one arm around her. "Are you ok?"

"Fine," she snapped. When Lee only looked at her, she said, "I'm sorry, Sweetheart, I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just...you know...a little upset."

"A little? Amanda, I've seen you less upset when we were trapped in a nest of KGB agents." Lee then turned his attention to the man causing her upset and in a cool tone said, "Joe, I think it's time for you to say good-night. I won't have you coming in here unannounced and upsetting my pregnant wife."

Joe's eyes widened in shock at Lee's statement, "You're pregnant?" he said.

"Yes," Amanda said in a quieter tone than before. "We got the news a few days ago."

"Well, it's no wonder the boys are upset," Joe said. "You drop a new stepfather on them, and then announce that they're going to have a new sibling too. That's a lot to take in."

"Two new siblings, actually," Lee said smugly as he wrapped his arms around her middle protectively. "We found out yesterday that Amanda's carrying twins."

"And for the record, Joe, the boys are not upset about it," Amanda said as she leaned in to her husband's protective embrace. "They're very excited about it, especially Jamie because he's going to be a big brother."

"_And_ they're excited about getting a bigger house where they can each have their own room," Lee said. "Since they only have a half-day at school tomorrow, we plan to use the time to do some house-shopping."

"Wait, you're moving too? When the hell were you planning on telling me than you plan on moving my kids?"Joe said hotly.

"When have we had time to, Joe?"Amanda fired back. "You haven't been around to tell anything to for the past two weeks!"

"Amanda, Honey, calm down," Lee said as he held her tightly. "You know what Dr. McJohn said about how added stress could affect your pregnancy."

"Okay, Amanda, you're right," Joe conceded. "I haven't been around, but there's been a reason for that. That's what Carrie and I wanted to talk to you about." Joe then reached for Carrie's left hand with his own and said, "We've been on our honeymoon."

Amanda gaped at their joined hands blatantly displaying the gold bands that both of them now wore. "Honeymoon?"

"Yes, you know," Carrie said in a joking tone trying to lighten the tension in the room, "The trip a newly married couple takes to spend some time alone together?"

"Of course, I know what a honeymoon is," Amanda said, "especially since we were just on ours a few weeks ago."

"Well, sort of," Lee said as he tightened his graps on his wife sensing she was about to explode again.

Amanda bit her lip, trying to keep herself calm, immensely grateful for her husband's reassuring touch. "I...I...um...I guess I'm just surprised. The way you talked the last time we spoke, it seemed as if you thought your relationship was over and now...now...you...you're...married. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to react to this."

"Humph," was Joe's response. "You know, most people say congratulations or that they're happy for the newlywed couple."

"You know, someone should really go check on the boys," Dotty said. "Bob, maybe you'd like to come with me. You could possibly calm them down by telling them some more stories of your travels."

"Excellent idea, Dotty," Bob said as the pair quickly escaped the tension-filled room.

Amanda sighed and said, "Joe, of course, I'm happy for you if you're happy, but I won't like and say that I'm not also worried. This is...this is just so sudden."

"And that's on top of the fact that the reason Carrie tried to break it off was because she didn't want to spend so much time with the boys," Lee said icily as he couldn't imagine anyone not wanting to be around those two great boys.

"You told them that?" Carrie said to Joe at the same time Joe said to Amanda, "He knows about that?"

"Yes, Lee knows," Amanda answered. "We don't keep secrets from each other."

"No, just from everyone else," Joe fired back.

"Joe, stop," Lee said. "You know we can't talk about what we do for a living, but that has nothing to do with this situation here. I think Amanda has a legitimate concern about Phillip and Jamie having a stepmother who doesn't want to be around them."

"Can we just pause on that for a second?" Carrie said. "This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion. I never said I didn't want to be around the kids. I merely said that I needed a break after Jamie screamed at me that I wasn't his mother, and that i would never be his mother, then yelled at me to stop trying to be. All I have ever done since I met them is try to be nice to both of them, to be their friend. I have never tried to replace Amanda, but I felt like that was how he was taking it. I...I just needed a break."

"Well, here's a tip. You don't get breaks from parenting," Lee said. "It's not like on the job where you can take a coffee break or a vacation. When you're a parent, you're in it for the long haul."

"What would you know about it?"Joe said coolly.

"A hell of a lot more than you," Lee countered.

"Lee, don't," Amanda said placing a calming hand on his arms that were still wrapped around her. She then turned to Carrie and said to her," Lee makes a good point though, parenting isn't supposed to be part-time," Amanda said, glancing briefly at her ex then back at Carrie.

"I get that. I just was upset and wasn't thinking clearly," Carrie said. "Jamie really hurt my feelings and I...I don't know."

"So what changed your mind?" Amanda said.

When Carrie didn't answer, Joe said, "I took your advice."

"There's a first," Amanda interjected.

"Come on, Amanda," Joe said.

"Okay, okay, go on."

"I told Carrie what you told me about how Jamie was giving Lee a hard way to go too and we talked, _really_ talked."

Carrie picked up where her husband left off. "When Joe told me what had been happening over here, I have to admit that I felt incredibly stupid for letting a scared eleven-year-old get to me. I would really like a chance to make it up to the boys since it's really my fault that they've missed their weekend time with their dad."

"Well, that's going to be up to the boys," Amanda said. "You're both going to have to do some serious groveling, especially since you just got married without telling them about it."

"Look who's talking," Joe said. "You two ran off to California and got married without telling them about it, so you have no room to pass judgment on us."

"I'm not passing judgment," Amanda explained. "I'm stating a fact. Lee and I have had to work really hard to regain their trust after what we did and I think you're going to have the same rough road that we did."

"The first thing to do is get them back down here to do that," Lee said with a glance toward the door and up the stairs. Now that things were calmer, he finally released Amanda and called up the stairs. "Phillip! Jamie! Get down her now!' When there was no response, he tried again. "Don't make me come up there!" He was soon rewarded by the thundering of two sets of feet on the stairs.

"What," Phillip snapped as he and his brother reached the landing.

"Carrie and your dad have something they want to talk to you about and I think you should listen while you finish your dinner," Lee said as he hustled them into the dining room, following behind them to keep them from bolting again.

"Listen, Lee," Amanda said. "Why don't we go finish our dinner in the kitchen so they can talk without us interfering?"

"That's a good idea," Dotty said as she also entered the room, Bob right behind her.

"There's plenty of food on the table if you two are hungry," Lee said.

"And extra plates in the china cabinet," Amanda said with a nod.

"Thank you, Amanda," Carrie said warmly. "That actually doesn't sound bad since we just got off a plane before we came here." She then glanced at the boys and added, "We haven't even been home yet because we wanted to see Phillip and Jamie right away.

With that decided, Bob, Dotty, Lee and Amanda took their plates into the kitchen closing the door behind them to give Joe and Carrie some time alone with the boys. "So, is every Sunday dinner this eventful?" Bob said.

Lee and Amanda looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh, "Dinners around here in general, are pretty eventful," Lee answered. While he laughed out the outside, he couldn't help but wonder how this one would turn out.


End file.
